Are we running out of Silver?
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Silver Supply vs Demand
As silver continues to rise in price, some are wondering when this "bubble" will ever burst. There is talk however, that silver is far more precious than we first thought.
To put it simply, there may only be enough silver above ground to last at most 30 years. Unless serious mining starts now, then we could be looking at a worldwide silver shortage. It is easy to speculate how much silver still remains underground but the truth is, no-one really knows.
Facts
Known reserves of silver total 12,860,000,000 ounces
The average industrial consumption of silver per year is 385,400,000 ounces
What's left?
A simple sum tells you that going by these figures, there is only enough silver left above ground to suppy the world for the next 33 years. Yopu then have to take into account that the consumption figure is for industrial use only, this does not include its other uses.
Serious thought needs to go into mining silver in order to prevent a rapid rise in the silver price and depletion of the metal.
Resources:
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/silver/mcs-2010-silve.pdf
J Miller 16 months ago
It's interesting to read about the reserves/usage of silver. I am sure there are a few underground reserves left to supply a little longer than 30 years.
There is MASSIVE speculation about the future price of silver.