Silver mining is an odd kind of business, for the most part. You see, there are very few pure silver mines, and even fewer pure silver miners.
The nature of silver deposits is that they often contain other metals. Sometimes it's gold, but more often than not it's base metals such as zinc, lead, and even molybdenum.
So, much of the silver produced today is a byproduct of base metals production.
If the miner considers itself to be a silver miner, it will use the profits from producing and selling the other metals as credits against the cost of producing the silver. In some cases, that can lead to negative cash costs, meaning they get paid to bring the silver out of the ground.
At the opposite extreme, you have high-cost silver producers, whose production costs can run up to $15 per ounce. Though in the current environment of $30 silver, that's still not a profit to sneeze at.
The takeaway here is that a considerable portion of silver supply depends on base metals production. If we should see a significant economic slowdown, that could translate into fewer base metals coming out of the ground. By extension, that means lower silver production - perhaps much lower.
Detractors will say that silver is also an industrial metal. That's true, too. So if the economy falters, industrial demand for silver should tag along.
But the wild card here is investment demand. Sustained economic weakness, or a full-on financial crisis, could well send precious metals investors clamoring for the "cheaper" of the two, buying silver rather than gold. That would light the fuse on silver prices.
Any savings silver producers plow into silver bullion will make it an increasingly valuable asset, not to mention one that's increasingly scarce.
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