We running out of silver? - Truth or Fiction?

[everything]

That's interesting they don't even put down a production cost for silver, sometimes calling it a negative cash cost of production after the gold, lead, and zinc they pull.

When silver hits the wall.
http://www.silver-investor.com/misc_art ... tsWall.htm

Bonanza?
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/04/06/ ... r-bonanza/

[68Camaro]

You know, I read last year China was the best at $358 an Oz..
Look at this older report for another country : Canadian miner Nevsun Resources reports
http://www.miningweekly.com/article/70- ... 2010-08-27
I think it is more like $400 but who knows...

Operating costs of $250/oz (if they are correct), but on top of initial capital costs of $260/oz (give or take), make it more like $500/oz, plus the cost of money, plus the project "benefits from the continued support of the Eritrean government". This in a place with incredibly low wages and very little EPA/OSHA/EEO etc regulation. I think their final true price will be substantially higher than $600/oz, even using their numbers. I think this is on the low end of reality, and I suspect a very optimistic view of a project that hasn't yet poured their first bar.

China sucks up all their own gold now on top of importing it, so whatever price it costs them doesn't really impact the global market for the foreseeable future, since they are focused on filling their coffers with it.

[pmbug]

SRSrocco has published some interesting thoughts (and data) on peak silver:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/peak-silv ... lling-eroi

[ZenOps]

I'd bet on nickel running out before silver. Technically we already have run out of nickel on three occasions, WWII when there was high demand, 1970 (for whatever reason) and 2007 LME default (natural depletion?)

We have never technically "run out" of silver. There was the hunt brother cornering the markets, but that wasn't really a shortage. There was the demonitization of silver in coinage (but gold was also demonitized as coinage in 1933)

Technically, the US has less nickel as coinage today, about $8 worth of nickels per person, 6.5 ounces and a little bit of nickel coating on the other coins; than there was circulating silver back in 1963 (approximately 10 ounces in dime, quarter, half and dollar form) And noone knows exactly for sure how much silver from circulation from that era is still out there, Was 50% of it remelted into bullion? 90%? How much was consumed in photography? How much in electronics? Its actually quite a guessing game.

Both are pretty scarce though, copper and gold are still readily available - but if you are considering a 100-year timeline, gold will eventually become more scarce as a physically heavy element you must go deeper and deeper to get it once you've got the surface gold. You might be waiting on a much much longer timeline for gold to achieve its full wealth potential (Gold is the money of kings, as they have multi-generational empires to maintain)

My bet is on nickel, because I know that the majority of surface nickel is micro-ionized in the soil and is technically not "minable" (unless you want to kill off vast tracts of arable land) and/or is in a form that is really only acid washable out of rock.

[SoFa]

It would be interesting to see how many other resources would be predicted to run out based on the USGS reports.
It could be a lot or even most of them.

And looking at the past reports, would be useful to put the current report into perspective (would the numbers in the past reports have predicted we run out 20, 30, 40 etc years ago?

[Copper Catcher]

The Great Silver Market Myth!
by David Morgan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHcusYVw ... re=related

[hobo finds]

735.9 million ounces produced in 2010. http://www.nma.org/pdf/g_silver_producers.pdf

[reddirtcoins]

With cash costs between $264 and $314 per ounce during 2011, Bisha is one of the lowest cost gold mines in the world making Nevsun one of the most profitable resource companies around these days. Since commercial production started in February 2011, the Bisha deposit has turned into one of the highest graded open pits in the world.
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/2012/04 ... ous-metals

[68Camaro]

With cash costs between $264 and $314 per ounce during 2011, Bisha is one of the lowest cost gold mines in the world making Nevsun one of the most profitable resource companies around these days. Since commercial production started in February 2011, the Bisha deposit has turned into one of the highest graded open pits in the world.
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/2012/04 ... ous-metals

Again, that's only part of the cost of their business. Doesn't include the start-up capital, loss risk, cost of money, etc.

Still, no doubt they are making money at current prices.

[reddirtcoins]

agree... just posting something other than what was in my mind..