but that's largely irrelevant as the vast bulk of silver mining is as a by producy of mining other metals at a much lower cost if there are silver mines only mining silver @ $15 USD an ounce they are doing mining wrong.
By product silver producers will only set the price if they can supply 100% of the demand. But they can’t.
its over 80% of the new supply comming as a bi-product they can sell it at half the cost of a primary (only) producer and make money off it. so yes they can that is wh production at mines that primarily mine silver is plummeting.
Miners don't set the price of metals, regardless of how much demand they can meet. As most miners don't refine the metals they receive credits and penalties for wanted and unwanted elements in their concentrate. In the case of a mine who's primary metal is copper with gold and silver as a by-product, credits (for gold and silver) and penaltys (for Bismuth) prices are generally locked into contracts, paid and deducted on top of the value of the primary metal... which can also have it's value predetermined by long term contracts or hedging. An example on a penalty element is Bismuth, while it dose have it's uses, when the concentrate is found to have more than an agreed % of Bi, then a penalty is deducted from the value of the con. Also, quite often silver and gold won't attract a credit unless there is more than a specified amount in the concentrate.... example, A gold credit is paid only if the concentrate contains 10% or greater gold. If the concentrate assays come back at 9.9% gold the smelter buying it gets the gold for free and the mines board of directors and managers spend the rest of the week in a grumpy mood.
This is only my personal opinion. I don't fully believe in the news out there. Do you remember in the late 2000s and up to 2014, everyone was talking about peak oil and now all of a sudden, there's too much oil? No more talk about peak oil any more. I betted on oil prices and banks stocks. I sold my bank stocks last year and lost some on oil stocks. In the end, it's about buying cheaply and selling when it's higher and diversification, buying a little of each.
Again Everything moves by Fibonacci (news is racket ) oil, bitcoin, stock market. I don’t care what people think because only market maker levels are important to me . Silver hold here 16.70 we have $18 for next expansion level. ($23 next) Gold:silver drop (A) held golden (618 fib) looks like (B)is finish back down to (C) for possible pattern = silver strength against gold
