Precious Metals

-Commercial pressure (batteries, semiconductors for AI, solar panels)
-Increased demand from India/Russia and retail Investors priced out of gold
-Global shortage from mine closures in S. America, other mining activity from which silver is a by-product

Last August there was a rumor going around that silver was about to shoot up. Guess they were a year and some change early on that.

However, 80% of India's silver supply is imported. The UAE and China are increasingly supporting that demand, but the U.K. is traditionally India's largest silver supplier.

Yet, London's vaults have been emptying rapidly for the past few years. In June 2022, the London Bullion Market Association held 31,023 metric tons of silver. By March 2025, volumes had fallen by around a third to 22,126 metric tons — its lowest point in years.

"What isn't necessarily so visible to people is what's happening in the vaults," said O'Connell. "And that had reached a point where there was basically there was no available metal left in London."

In October, the squeeze was such that traders had to pay much higher borrowing costs – or lease rates – to close their positions.

"At one stage, to borrow overnight was costing 200% on an annualized basis, so a lot of people were very stressed to put it mildly," said O'Connell.

Supply is a constant issue for silver, as for other precious and rare metals. The Silver Institute's 2025's World Silver Survey estimates that mine production has been decreasing over the past 10 years, especially in Central and South America.

"Over the course of the past twelve months or so, the underlying surplus has started to turn into a deficit for three reasons: the impact of the electrification of the vehicle fleet, artificial intelligence, and photovoltaics," said O'Connell.
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"At the moment, a standard electric vehicle has about 25 grams of silver, maybe the larger EVs have 50 grams of silver as part of their components," said Syms.

"If we move into these solid-state silver batteries, each electric vehicle might require a kilo or more of silver," he added.

"At the moment, a standard electric vehicle has about 25 grams of silver, maybe the larger EVs have 50 grams of silver as part of their components," said Syms.

"If we move into these solid-state silver batteries, each electric vehicle might require a kilo or more of silver," he added.
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Source

All I know is a) my husband has scored yet another “you were so right” and b) kids are happy their allowance savings are in silver dollars.
 
I actually went through a phase of buying up physical silver about a decade ago. Earlier this month I sold about half of what I had when it was around $62 per ounce. Now I'm wishing I had held off until next year.
 
I have owned silver (physical) for 15 years now.


Samsung (the largest industrial consumer of silver) is trying to buy silver directly from miners likely because they know at some point the LBMA will run out of physical silver to deliver. If that happens in 2026 there will be a huge short squeeze on silver mooning the price. Paper price manipulation eventually comes to an end when there is huge industrial demand for the physical product that overwhelms the paper market. The shorts are going to get wrecked in 2026.
 
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