My choice of title pertains, to anyone having even the slightest doubt, that the world is facing a global shortage of silver in the near future. As we enter the fifth straight year of demand outpacing new mine production, the question is when?

The only reason it hasn’t manifested in a huge increase in the price, yet, has been the continuous manufacture of paper silver to replace the ounces (tons) being stolen from the inventories of the various silver ETF’s. Rehypothecation has been the facilitator of this crime.

I was actually thinking about the fact that higher silver prices were going to work in the solar industry, the way they do in agricultural and other commodities. The old chestnut in commodity circles, which is very true, is that the “cure for high prices, is high prices.” That is probably going to play out in the case of future solar cells, as silver prices rise precipitously and lead towards an eventual switch to less efficient and less resiliant copper.(adds to the long term bullish case for copper)

This article below details the additional uses of silver in fusion and other technologies for energy needs, and how demand will ramp up over the next two to three years, which I believe will help offset any dropoff from solar power use. The bottom line is, the shortage of silver exists and is getting worse, despite denials from some in the community who believe the old tales that once were true, about the tons of silver slag that miners of lead, copper, zinc and other metals who get silver as a secondary byproduct and just left it laying around to tarnish or be stolen.

Do people really believe that public companies that have a fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value, are going to leave tons of a metal that sells for tens or even hundreds of times more than their basic prodcuct, just laying around, when it could easily be sent to a processor to realize millions of dollars of revenue straight to their bottom line?

Maybe back in the days when silver was $4-5 dollars an ounce, but at multiples of those levels and going up, and with countries like China and India scouring the globe to secure dore, paste and any other form of silver, they aren’t going after the slag wherever they can find it. I wouldn’t bet on it.

The day of reckoning is near. The one thing that has kept it at bay for 50+ years, is the creation and rehypothecation of millions of ounces of paper silver. The industrial demand around the world is the catalyst. The explosion that follows, will come when the billions of global citizens scramble to get their hands on as little as a fraction of an ounce. Their lives may well depend on it? https://silverseek.com/article/silver-harnessing-energy-stars