The True Cost Of Silver

When I was kid in Nevada, I used to go hiking and would pass quartz with veins of Silver all the time. It was common. So Common that we had a rock garden in Fallon that was full of veined quartz because my grandma thought it was pretty. We also had some small quantities of gold veined Quartz but Gramps kept that in the garage because it was still illegal to own Gold at the time.

jmkendall: I have been to the Eldorado Canyon mine in NV. Quite interesting. First time for me in an underground mine. It used to produce gold as well as silver. It is a tourist destination now.

I have also seen the Super Pit in Western Australia. So far, that mine has produced over 1000 tons of gold. It is open cut. The hole is two miles long, half a mile wide and over 1000 feet deep.

It is easy to find the hole on Google maps.

Two problems with the "true" price of au and ag:

1) As has been pointed out, they are often by products of copper and other metals. Depending on how your cook your books, the price can be anything from cheap to free.

2) Even if a mine produces only au or ag, when prices rise, production moves to the lower grade areas of the mine, raising costs. The better ores are saved for when prices fall again.