It might be a little early for me to say that because as gold has been restricted, that number might even be well above that (total of 6,000 tons of silver). In the first 8 months there were something like 4,000 tons (already consumed), so we are just extrapolating that trend, but the trend was gaining strength as the year went on.
But when you (as India) buy an extra 4,000 tons of silver in a year, you are buying an extra 17% of the (entire global) market. So we have a new entrant into the (silver) market who takes down 17% of the supply, and the price goes down. It’s the same analogy as China buying gold. They (China) buy 25% more of the (entire global) market and the price (of gold) goes down.
Those things don’t hold together. Logically this should not happen (the price of silver going down). So, I’m very optimistic on silver. The US Mint silver sales have just been booming here. They are still 50/1 in terms of the physical relationship to gold at the US Mint. We (only) produce 11-times more silver (than gold). We (only) have about 3-times more silver (available) for investment, and yet investors, via the (US) Mint, are buying it at a 50/1 ratio to gold. That cannot persist too long without the price of silver going up (substantially).”
- Eric Sprott, as seen on King World News:
