Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;InfleXion, post: 1572770, member: 29012&quot;]Many of you probably know I have a serious crush on silver and my thoughts tend to be biased in that direction. That being said, in light of watching all these gold shows on TV I am beginning to think, could silver actually be worth more than gold one day?&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Everybody and their mother is going after gold today, and why not? It&#039;s easy to get out of the ground. It weighs more than everything else, easy to pan. It comes in nuggets you can see with the naked eye.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Silver on the other hand comes mixed in with other metals, looks dingy until you refine it, and you can&#039;t pan for it. The refinement process is lengthy and complicated, requiring chemicals, burnoff, and when all is said and done there is very little silver per cubic yard of dirt, something like the size of a BB. While this may still be a good return, it is far more cost and energy intensive to produce, and will also be more impacted by energy prices to a degree. </p><p><br /></p><p>Point being, your average Joe Sixpack is not going to be able to go get silver out of the ground, but anybody can gold mine.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Yes silver is more abundant below ground, but in the open market it is far less abundant than gold. As metal fever likely induces the masses due to continued dollar devaluation I am wondering, will there be more and more freelancers going for gold, adding to the supply independently of actual mining operations? It seems a likely scenario that is already underway.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Meanwhile, silver continues to scrape by on the skin of its teeth as miners are not meeting demand without aid from existing supply, and there are no common folk who are going to come help add to the supply as is the case with gold.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Silver is only deposited on the planet one way, by epithermal depisition, near the surface of the Earth&#039;s crust. Gold is deposited both in this manner, and by mesothermal deposition which has placed veins of gold rich material deep throughout the mantle in areas we have yet to reach. But as humans have been around a short while on this planet we have already tapped a large portion of the crust which is easy to get to.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>It seems like silver is becoming harder to get, and people at large may make gold easier to get your hands on. Yet silver being the 2nd most useful industrial commodity, the most reflective metal, the most conductive of both heat and electricity of anything in the known universe, that cannot be reproduced, that cannot be substituted out without loss of quality will likely be essential for human progress barring the ability to harness nuclear fusion.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>There is the argument that silver is cheap to produce relative to spot price, and that will draw the miners to get after it for profit. I don&#039;t buy this, because there are almost no primary silver mines. The &#039;primary&#039; distinction is based on the metal that produces the most value, not the most quantity. Since lead, zinc, and silver are deposited homogenously, these mines are currently labelled primary lead or primary zinc mines. So those metals bear the cost of production burden. Silver is just a byproduct of the operation, and its cost of production is skewed to the downside because it is deflected to these other metals that keep the mine in operation. If the price rose enough to make these primary silver mines again then the cost of production would instantly jump independently of the spot price by the distinction alone. If there were no lead or zinc in these primary lead or zinc mines they wouldn&#039;t be profitable enough to keep open just to get the silver. The fact that these have historically been and should be primary silver mines is just another testament to the price being too low relative to the other 2 metals.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in