In a recent  post, I suggested that Elon Musk and or some other manufacturers who require large amounts of silver to produce EV’s, solar panels and other products, would be wise to consider buying a large North American producer of silver to guarantee their supply chain given the likelihood of coming shortages. Even if one takes the attitude that they don’t really want to be in the mining business, a purchase of either of the two US companies I mentioned, could be structured in a way to minimize both the cost and the operation’s complexity. Both of these companies have over the last 5 years or so  positioned themselves to be less pure silver miners and more almost 50-50 gold and silver miners.(rough approx.) This would allow a purchaser who just really wants to guarantee a considerable supply of silver, to sell off the mostly gold producing mines and keep just the ones that mostly generated the silver production. While I didn’t look too deeply into Hecla’s portfolio, I did for Coeur. If I were buying CDE just for the silver, I would sell off their two or three gold mines(I am sure many of the large gold miners would love a chance to buy additional gold reserves as the price is on the cusp of breaking out to new ATH’s.) That would greatly reduce the final cost of acquiring the company while leaving only two to three silver operations. I personally would also sell off their one Mexican silver mine which is only about 1/4-1/3 of their silver production. If Musk, one of the other major auto makers or some other large user of silver doesn’t strike soon, don’t be surprised if a private equity or some other strategic investor doesn’t jump in ahead of them. Both stocks are ABSOLUTE steals at these levels if you believe silver is going to at least $30 and more likely to $50 and  new ATH’s, in the months to come.