Realcent.org

...and will have an eventual impact on price.

http://www.silverdoctors.com/silver-price-to-rise-as-top-miners-production-evaporates/

This article demonstrates the macro picture. When we take into account all the factors involved in determining price / value, silver has no where to go but up in future. IMO we are in a period of time where the individual collecter should be doing everything possible to buy/ buy/ buy. Inflation will push all production costs up from labor, energy, equipment. Regulations keep increasing and the cheap silver has been found. When production costs exceed break even miners will keep it in the ground or hold it back from market waiting for true price discovery.
Thanks for sharing this eye opening article.

But...but...the market is the market. Reality & Sentiment have no standing

We don't care about facts in this market! otherwise the gold/silver ration wouldn't be 63 right now.

Good article btw.

I would not be incredibly surprised if peak silver was reached before peak oil. The article does a good job of showcasing the declining ore grades, but didn't mention one of the big reasons for this which is that due to silver's melting point it was primarily deposited near the surface of the Earth's crust when the planet was formed; epithermal deposition being the only method silver was deposited here. Much of the low hanging fruit has already been extracted, and there probably won't be another Comstock lode.

Gold on the other hand was deposited both epithermally and mesothermally with large veins running deep within the crust.

We could very well be on a slippery slope as silver becomes increasingly expensive and dangerous to mine as miners will have to dig deeper for decreasing returns.