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LATEST NEWS ABOUT SILVER PRICES AND MARKETS

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Finding a Floor for Silver & Silver Miners | Resource Investor

Finding a Floor for Silver & Silver Miners | Resource Investor

www.TheSilverPrice.info


Since silver reached our target of $50 last year it has been in a treacherous downhill descent. The depth of the decline in precious metals is approaching 2008 levels, and many mining stocks are at 2009 price levels. While it has been painful for bullion investors, it's been even more disastrous for silver miners and their investors. Now we must revisit our analysis to determine if silver and miners are near their trading floor.
We've seen a lot of bearish reports on silver including a comparison to the Nasdaq bubble crash, which overlays a projection of silver to continue falling to the $6-$8 range. Is it possible for silver to reach or hold at those levels?
 
Using earnings data for PAAS, SSRI, EXK, and AG from the first quarter of 2012, we divided earnings by actual silver produced, giving credit for gold and other base metals, in order to determine the actual break even cost of production. Gold sales averaged $1,700 and silver averaged $33 for the first quarter. Despite this SSRI wasn't profitable. EXK had the lowest breakeven point of $14.68 per ounce of silver, followed by AG at $18.33 and PAAS at $23.87. The average breakeven production cost was exactly $24 per ounce. Even excluding SSRI, the average was $21.50. Over the past 11 years, silver has risen by nearly 10 fold; however production costs have almost risen just as much. Silver's price is approaching its long term cost of production level, and given the depletion of silver stockpiles of the last 3 decades, we don't anticipate silver's price holding below that level for long – if at all. If you're somehow able to buy silver for less than $21.50 to $24 an ounce we'd argue that miners are literally paying you to buy it. Given that over the long run miners need a healthy profit margin as an incentive and buffer against their depleting resources, we'd argue that $26 to $30 is the long term nominal floor for silver.

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