What's Happened To Silver Lately?

Unless the figures have changed recently, for decades, every year considerable more silver is used than mined.

Whether that constitutes a shortage or just a shortfall will continue to be debated. There are huge inventories of silver in hoards and existing items like flatware and coins.

Last I heard, Kodak, the world's largest silver user, has bulldozed their silver film plants.

Silver is not the only byproduct of copper mines. There are mines around the world where silver is a byproduct of gold and lead probably zinc as well. Cannington is a mine in Queensland (Australia) where silver, lead and zinc is produced. I do agree that there aren't that many mines where silver is the primary mineral mined although it doesn't mean that there aren't any new ones being setup. There is one in Queensland as well being setup at the moment: http://www.macmin.com.au/projects/t...ne/index.htm

As far as I am aware, it's the industry that demands a big percentage of silver. Production IS increasing despite what some people want to believe. This link might be of better discussion instead on rumors: http://www.silverinstitute.org

What usually happens with the mining industry is that the lower grade ores are stockpiled. When prices are low, higher graded ores are processed. If prices become better, a mixture from the stockpile will be used. When prices get high enough, it becomes economical to process which otherwise might have been known as waste.