In ten years time cost of labour will be minor.
Rio already have Pilbara mine automated and Syama gold mine in Mali will be the first large scale underground mine in operation by end of the year.
Doubt labour will be a issue
I guess you're right, but somehow my gut feel is that Silver is going to be much higher than $20 an oz in 10 years, although in the short term, it is possible to fall to $13 or even lower, especially with the coming AFC 2.0.
Today, I saw 2 silver trinket stalls at a flee market near my home that attracted an unusual number of women (young and old). I didn't stay long enough to see if anyone was buying. People were so crazy over white color metal that they made gold white. I decided not to go for white gold when I bought my wedding bands as I thought it's crazy to pay "gold price" for "silver looking" metal.
People actually wanted silver but they couldn't bear to put it on as it is too cheap. I believe that the jewellery demand for silver will rise if the price of silver were to go to above $50/oz.
As for gold, my current physical gold to silver ratio is 2:3. I think gold is relatively more expensive than silver and so only bought gold as a hedge against silver, but based on what is happening now, this strategy failed as gold has fallen as much as silver.
