Great post I 100% agree with >>> and is why I keep adding to my pile in my home safe
Technically correct BUT on a practical basis incorrect. Silver of which industry is still the largest buyer/user. Why do many assume it is "investors" who buy the most silver? Not so! ALL silver held for investment today equals about 11 months of industrial usage at current industrial usage rates. Industry uses up (destroys) about 98% of silver that comes in its "doors". This includes the tiny flecks of silver found in electronics of which tends to be spread all over most any electronic device it is found in.
A typical computer contains about one ounce of silver (from 0.2 to x10 that but a computer with zero silver would run so slow to be useless in today's world. Such silver is so "spread out" about half is not "reachable" by ANY means and to reclaim what is reachable can cost $10K an ounce and up. Industrial silver is rarely found in single large "clumps" thus industrial silver is essentially ALL destroyed as it is placed into computers etc.
Silver is not magnetic (nor is gold) and as someone who has been very involved with metals for 40+ years I know of no economical method of recovery of silver (chemical or otherwise). This includes the "immense amount of metals" found in sea water another person mentions. There is much gold in the oceans of the world (economic recovery is another matter) so much so that more gold is in the waters of the oceans than is currently above ground on land! In fact, as a "heavy metal" the world has a HUGE amount of gold - best guess >99% of all gold still remains in the ground.
Gold being a "heavy metal" naturally drops as the earth shifts. The deeper one digs, the MORE gold there is. There is already 4x more gold mined and residing above ground than there is silver (mined and above ground). Gold is typically kept in large connected amounts. 98%+ of all gold ever mined still exists and most is available for prices not too far from gold's current spot price. Not so silver. All but one or two percent of earth's silver has been mined and has been DESTROYED by industry (silver is a "light" metal thus most was found near the surface). For thousands of years silver has been DESTROYED for purposes deemed "important (i.e. building computers to use in slurry mixes polishing ball bearings but DESTROYED none the less). Silver currently has more individual uses than any other metal!
But barring some very unlikely discovery of a huge amount of untapped silver virtually all silver is now gone FOREVER. Considering the many new amazing (i.e. medical) uses being discovered for silver, should it have been hoarded and rationed beginning many hundreds of years ago? IMO, Yes!
But it was not and there is no sign of that happening. It is to the economic advantage of too many individuals, companies, etc. to allow silver to rise in price until it is FORCED to increase due to actual and permanent scarcity Only then will silver increase in price based on demand compared to available.
How close is the world to that point I consider a "vertical cliff?". No one knows for sure but a "best guess" is "relatively soon". Barring discovery of a substitute with equal or better electrical properties (compared to silver) of which tremendous resources have been devoted to developing such a substitute (at a reasonable production price of quantities currently used of silver) but not just minimal success but NO success has occurred.
Methods of "stretching" silver that remains - yes - i.e. silver flashing another metal such as copper or brass (99% of electricity/electronic signals "travels" on the 1% outer layer of wire, circuit paths etc. (so having silver present on the outer most "layer" is needed for low resistivity/high speed BUT that has been done for decades even when silver was much cheaper. The point of maximum "stretching' was reached long ago.
Now it is just a matter of using up (destroying) what remains until that "vertical cliff" is reached. THEN mankind will experience much "hand wringing" lamenting "oh why did we not ration silver long ago!". It will be too late. Industry (i.e. electronics) will mostly return to the "copper circuit era (1900 to about 1965 when the low resistance of silver made it a "star". BUT not a "star" whose price reflected its eventual scarcity. Like most commodities, silver was always priced at TODAY'S availability. This was not some giant "trick" by many but just normal market forces. EXCEPT, in this case, silver will be the first primary major important commodity of which the world will run out of! The very first one! Not oil or any of the other commodities so much is said about. Silver will be the first to be gone!
As an engineer, inventor, forecaster, etc. I don't believe this will be permanent as other means will be developed in coming decades (i.e. organic "circuits") but this is many decades away. In the meantime, technology will be "reversed" by "decades" to the "age of copper, zinc, etc. Silver that remains will be so scarce it will reserved (by law most likely) for the most critical uses and with a cost per ounce to match.
