Some Info On Silver & Other Boring Stuff
Read This First
Why You Should Own Silver & How To Profit From Silver
(The Good Stuff Is Always Saved Till Last Anyways)
An Exclusive On Why You Must Be Invested In Silver by Jim Lynn
AND
INFLATION PROOF YOUR MONEY WITH SILVER - by Jim Lynn
When we talk about junior mining and junior mining companies we always seem to get the image of gold. It seems that gold is what gets people attention. Gold and diamonds. All that glitters. Silver always seems to take the back seat. Maybe because it is always referred to as the "poor mans gold" because it is so much cheaper in price or there just isn't much news about silver or silver mining.
As we go into this bull market in metals and mining many believe that silver will out perform gold on a percentage basis in the long run. There are those who say silver is actually in short supply and mines have not kept pace. Others talk about conspiracy theories of so called under ground or elitists hoarding vast tons and keeping the price suppressed to discourage others from buying. Either way we are not here to argue one way or the other. We are here to get a few simple facts and maybe make a few bucks. Isn't that what any miner wants? Just a few easy bucks? Well with silver we think that you will be able to make a few easy bucks over the next few years. And here is why.
Facts About Silver
Silver is a very ductile and malleable (slightly harder than gold) monovalent coinage metal with a brilliant white metallic luster that can take a high degree of polish. It has the highest electrical conductivity of all metals, even higher than copper, but its greater cost and tarnishability have prevented it from being widely used in place of copper for electrical purposes.
Among metals, pure silver has the highest thermal conductivity, whitest color and the highest optical reflectivity. Silver also has the lowest contact resistance of any metal. Silver is stable in pure air and water, but tarnishes when it is exposed to air or water containing ozone or hydrogen sulfide.
Silver is found in native form; combined with sulfur, arsenic, antimony, or chlorine; and in various ores. The principal sources of silver are the ores of copper, nickel, gold, lead, and lead-zinc.
Commercial-grade fine silver is at least 99.9% pure silver, and purities greater than 99.999% are available.
Photography used 24% of the silver consumed in 2001 in the form of silver nitrate and silver halides, while 33% was used in jewellery, 40% for industrial uses, and only 3% for coins and medals.
Most silver is used in jewellery, electronics, medical instruments and other high tech components. Silver ions and silver compounds show a toxic effect on some bacteria, viruses, algae and fungi, typical for heavy metals like lead or mercury, but without the high toxicity to humans that is normally associated with them. The exact process of silver's germicidal effect is still not well understood, although theories exist. One of these is the oligodynamic effect, which explains the effect on microbial lifeforms but does not explain certain antiviral effects.
Silver As Money And Currency
A major use of silver is as a precious metal. Today little if any silver is used in everday coinage other than silver dollars, maple leafs, eagles etc. Silver was first coined to produce money in around 700 BC by the Lydians. Later, silver was refined and coined in its pure form. Many nations used silver as the basic unit of monetary value (known as the Silver standard). The words for "silver" and "money" are the same in at least 14 languages. In the modern world, silver bullion has the ISO currency code XAG.
The name of the United Kingdom monetary unit "pound" reflects the fact that it originally represented the value of one troy pound of sterling silver.
In the 1800s, many nations, such as the United States and Great Britain, switched from silver to a gold standard of monetary value, then in the 20th century to fiat currency.
Silver Mining And Exploration
In 2005, Peru was the top producer of silver with almost one-seventh world share, closely followed by Mexico, according to the British Geological Survey.
Peru and Mexico have been mining silver since 1546 and are still major world producers. Many juniors are actively exploring for silver in both these countries.
Further north in states like Montana and Idaho, silver is the history of these places. Like so many place around th globe had it not been for mining the towns and cities would most likely never been built.
Even further north across the border into Canada, silver was the metal throughout the southern British Columbia interior. Places like Nelson, Kaslo and Silverton were founded on silver. That trend continues north even further into the Yukon Territory to places like Keno City and Galena. It is really to bad that silver doesn't get the credit it deserves.
Junior Silver Miners & Explorers
There are a lot of junior miners that have silver properties in their portfolios. Pretty much any junior that has some precious metal property will have exposure to silver in some degree. But there are some who have a core holding of silver. At junior miners here we are more inclined to follow the little guy. The smaller and unheard about explorer. Some of our small miners are:
For a complete list of Silver mining companies are listed here.
The Why & How To Buying and Owning Silver
One question we hear alot is, "Is silver a good investment." At around $14.00 an ounce at the time of this writing and with gold a bit over $800 an ounce you can see why silver is called the "poor mans gold." In the past 5 years as you can see by the small chart here, silver has gone up more than 300%. Gold on the other hand had a low of $250 in the past 5 years and is at around the $800 US mark, so that would give you a bit more than 200% return. Thus far silver has outperformed gold in percentage terms.
Silver is easy to buy and easy to sell. The nice thing about silver is that it is affordable. For anyone who is tossing the idea of buying but feel the top in price is near, think again! Gold in 1981 hit $850+ and silver hit $40+. Well gold is already back at its historic highs and silver is still in the teens. (These prices haven't figured in inflation for the past 30 years). Silver could easily double in price. Even at that the price would still be under $30 an ounce. Silver is more than a metal. It is also a currency and that currency is good anywhere in the world. Like good it never really looses it's value. Take a US dollar right now to another country, say in Europe and you will find that many business won't accept it because of it's loosing value to fast. But silver, like gold holds its value in any currency world wide. This is where the value lies. Silver is an asset.
Anyone who follows the junior mining companies with any kind of interest is bullish on commodity prices going forward. And silver is no exception to that rule. Silver will go up. There is a world wide shortage of new silver. Places like China, India and the far East are expanding and seeing prosperity. These people all want consumer goods and silver is used in almost everything. Jewellery, electronics, medicine. The list goes and on. This also creates a supply and demand issue. With world politics and terror issues there is global uncertainty. This too is positive for silver.
Owning silver is as simple as buying silver coins or ingots. Coins that sell in 1 ounce piece are readily available from most banks or coin dealers. Ingots in the 1-10 ounce piece are a bit different. They can be bought by various online vendors but most want a minimum $1000 order. If you don't have the the $1400 you may have to buy the smaller pieces but then most charge added fees, shipping cost, handling etc. By the time you get done the price can be almost double spot price.
There are places online that you can buy silver coins for investment. One place that we buy from is Silver Snowball.
An Exclusive On Why You Must Be Invested In Silver by Jim Lynn
AND
INFLATION PROOF YOUR MONEY WITH SILVER - by Jim Lynn
