There still seems to be a great deal of confusion about the true cost to mine silver. After I wrote my article “Can the Primary Miners Survive $18 Silver”, I received a lot of replies that were all over the place. By that I mean, there seems to be no…
Thanks to the wonderfully functioning rational markets that we have today, at current silver prices virtually all of the primary miners are now below net income break-even. I say this with a great deal of sarcasm because in fact there is nothing rational about the markets today. It becomes increasingly…
One of the most insidious problems taking place in the gold and silver mining industry is the decline in falling yields. Not many realize, when yields decline, production evaporates and disappears. To offset the decline in metal yields, the mining companies have to add new mines and or increase the…
There still seems to be huge misunderstanding by many investors as to what it really cost to mine silver. I still come across individuals and analysts who believe the price of silver is overvalued because it is so cheap to mine the metal. Part of the reason for this FALLACY,…
The results are finally out and 2012 proved to be another record year for the continued squeeze in the top 5 gold miners. Not only did gold production decline 1.3 million ounces from the top 5 year-over-year, their average yield dropped another 6%. As gold yields continue to decline, it…
The top primary silver mining company in the world, Fresnillo LLC saw its averge silver yield decline 13% in 2012. The large percentage of the decline came from its flagship Fresnillo mine whose average silver ore grade fell from 396 g/t in 2011 to 328 g/t in 2012. The figures for the chart above…