The Inside Story on Why Silver is Such an Exceptional Investment Opportunity
The Silver Lining
Silver’s dramatic rise over the last two months is no fluke – it’s the result of a compelling supply/demand dynamic within a unique market structure. We hope the following comments convey our enthusiasm for “the other shiny metal” as an exceptional investment opportunity. Words: 2226
So say Eric Sprott & David Franklin (www.sprott.com) in an article* which Lorimer Wilson, editor of www.munKNEE.com, has reformatted and edited [...] below for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read.
c) The Actual Total Supply of Silver
Because we believe the demand for precious metals will continue to increase in this environment, we’re always interested to know the total supply available in today’s physical bullion market. According to the best estimates from the USGS and current mining statistics, approximately 46 billion ounces of silver have been mined since the dawn of civilization. In comparison, approximately 5 billion ounces of gold have been mined throughout history. Reading this, a casual observer might conclude that gold is currently justified in being worth more than silver based on its relative scarcity – but the current price discrepancy ($1,250/oz gold vs $19/oz silver) is misleading.
As mentioned above, there are only 1 billion ounces of silver left above ground in bullion form today. That is a surprisingly small number in relation to the 46 billion ounces mined throughout history. The reason is due to silver’s consumption in manufacturing. Just like other industrial minerals, silver has been consumed in various processes over the course of history. Silver’s superiority in heat transfer, conductivity and light reflectivity make it unique, and it boasts anti-microbial properties that make it ideal for surgical instruments, clothing materials and certain medical applications. The key point to remember with all these applications is that once the silver is consumed it is typically never recycled. Many of its industrial applications require such small amounts in each surgical tool, electronic device or clothing item that it isn’t economic to recover from garbage dumps. For comparison, there are currently approximately two billion ounces of gold above ground in bullion form compared with the 5 billion ounces of gold mined throughout history. So despite being more heavily mined over time, silver bullion is now the more scarce “precious” metal than gold bullion is from an investment supply perspective.
d) The “Supply Conundrum” for Silver
This is where the silver story gets interesting for us. At today’s prices you have $19 billion dollars of silver ($19 x 1 billion ounces) and $2.5 trillion dollars of gold ($1250 x 2 billion ounces) above ground in bullion form. The size of the investment market for gold is therefore 131 times larger than that for silver and yet, on a market relative dollar basis, investors are actually buying more silver than they are gold today. At today’s metals prices, in dollar terms, the US mint has sold approximately three times more value in gold than in silver thus far in 2010 coin sales – but there should be 131 times more gold sold than silver for the market to stay in balance. None of the largest gold and silver investment vehicles reflect the 131:1 ratio, suggesting that investors have a disproportionately large interest in owning physical silver.
For example, the largest gold ETF today, the SPDR Gold Trust (“GLD”), is currently ten times the dollar value of the largest silver ETF, the iShares Silver Trust (SLV). Since the SLV began trading in April 2006, the GLD has increased by $8 for every $1 increase in SLV’s NAV. Again, given the choice, investors are voting with their dollars and putting disproportionately more dollars into silver than gold from a relative market size perspective. It appears that no investors are anywhere close to buying 131 times more gold than silver, which market metrics would suggest if the demand for gold and silver were relatively equal – all of which brings us to silver’s ‘supply conundrum’: If on the supply side, as Ted Butler calculates, there are only one billion ounces of silver left in bullion form available for investment; and if, on the demand side, we were able to identify the holders of 500 million ounces spread across a mere seven investors – it implies that there is only 500 million ounces of silver left for everyone else to invest in!
As large holders of silver bullion ourselves, we can tell you that 500 million ounces is not that much from a global perspective, and certainly won’t be enough to satiate the world’s investment demand for silver going forward. Also let us not forget the large silver short position on the COMEX that will almost undoubtedly require the purchase of 330 million ounces of silver to eventually cover. Assuming that happens, most of the silver available for investment will essentially already have been spoken for. It also serves to mention that there will be no government silver stocks capable of covering this impending supply shortfall. According to the latest audit, the US treasury currently has 7,075,171 oz of silver in storage, which is about enough to handle two months of silver eagle coin production. If the COMEX silver short sellers are ever forced to cover, they won’t be able to lean on the government for a physical bailout.
e) Implications for the Future Price of Silver
Judging by the numbers above, if hedge funds or any other large investor ever decided to invest in the physical silver market with the same voracity as they did with gold, the silver price could potentially explode. The existing silver inventory at COMEX is currently worth a little more than $2 billion at today’s silver price. We already know that high-profile hedge fund managers like Soros, Paulson and Einhorn have gold holdings with a total value of over $5 billion. If that same purchasing power was ever applied to the silver market, we could potentially witness a dramatic rise in the silver price and an effective clearing of all the physical silver in the COMEX inventory. It deserves mention that the SPDR Gold Trust (“GLD”) added almost $5 billion dollars worth of gold in the last month alone, and it would take less than half of that GLD gold investment to wipe out the entire silver COMEX inventory. The bottom line for us is that silver appears to be a fantastic investment today.
[Please read Wilson's article here entitled "Historical Gold:Silver Ratios Suggest Silver Could (Easily) Reach $200! Here's Why"]
Conclusion
Limited supply, strong demand and a potential buyer of almost half of one year’s global mining silver output make a great case for owning silver in physical form. Based on our calculations, it appears that the silver investment demand statistics published by GFMS and The Silver Institute are highly misleading at best. We believe the investment demand for silver is multiple times higher than that published, and given the outrageous short position in silver on the COMEX, coupled with the unsustainable buying ratios relative to gold, the case for physical silver is simply outstanding.
Read whole article here:
http://www.munknee.com/2010/12/the-inside-story-on-why-silver-is-such-an-exceptional-investment-opportunity/
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