Australia Silver

Silver Surges to a Seven Year High

2020-08-06T20:22:00.001-07:00

Spot Silver price has followed gold, shooting upward during the Covid-19 pandemic, as more people turn to the yellow metal's poorer cousin the demand has surged.

Silver breached $40 AUD this morning as a seven year high is reached

Silver hit a seven year high overnight on the back of a huge rally this past week, gaining 22 percent to $US29 an ounce.

Since mid-March, when the coronavirus began to take hold globally, the price of the precious metal has risen more than 140 percent.

People have been piling into the precious metals market during the pandemic, which is considered a safe haven asset, as governments moved to lockdown large parts of their economies, and central banks responded swiftly with interest rate cuts and quantitative easing programmes.

New Zealand Gold Merchants director Tony Coleman said silver's surging spot price was being driven by a number of factors.

He said the metal was rebounding from a sharp fall seen in mid March, global supply shortages, and precious metals were more desirable due to the weak US dollar.

However, Coleman did not expect the silver's relentless rise to continue at the current rate.

"It's had a stellar rise, I do believe both [gold and silver] metals are due for a correction at some stage, it's risen too quickly and too sharply."

Coleman's long-term view, however, is for silver's spot price to rise to record levels.

His outlook was based partly on a growing weariness amongst investors.

"The thing that we're noticing is that there is a distinct loss of faith in currency, there's a distinct loss of faith in government and a growing distrust of people holding their money in banks.

"In short, the people around the world are worried about the global economic future."

Coleman said New Zealanders were among those flocking to buy precious metals, and his company was receiving hundreds of calls a day from people who were interested in investing silver and gold.

However, silver is not immune to volatility.

Will Silver Pullback from here or will it keep going up? What do you think?

#australiasilver #silver #silvernews #silverinvestment #silverprice #silvergold #silverbullion

Silver Update: New Bull Market Is Here

2020-07-26T18:47:00.001-07:00

A big change has just happend in the Silver commodities market recently, and the result is a new bull market for the precious metal.

See Source for more similar silver content: https://srsroccoreport.com/

Monty 2106 Saltwater Crocodile Carded Silver 1oz Coin RAM

2016-06-14T01:58:00.000-07:00

The fourth crocodile to be featured in the annual Australian Saltwater Crocodiles series, a proud twelve-year collaboration with Australia Zoo. The Australia Zoo family has always seen another side to them with the Crocoseum providing the opportunity for visitors to discover their beautiful, graceful and playful qualities.

Monty is one of Australia Zoo’s star crocodiles, who has been treated and raised with love since he was captured in 1975. He has been nurtured over the years, and grown to an amazing 3.7 metres and 400 kilograms. As well as being a star attraction to many Zoo visitors, he also starred alongside Steve and Terri Irwin in the 2002 film The Crocodile Hunter

SPECIFICATIONS:

Denomination	Metal	Diameter	Mass	Finish	Mintage
$1	99.9% Ag	40.00mm	1oz	Frosted Uncirculated	5000

You can purchase this Monty 2106 Saltwater Crocodile Carded Silver 1oz Coin directly from the Royal Australian Mint

#Silver #AustraliaSilver #RAM #RAMSILVER #SilverCoins #Coin #Proof #SilverBullion

Five Years That Changed Silver Forever

2016-03-28T03:07:00.001-07:00

Ask any casual observer of the silver market what happened to the metal over the past five years and you’re likely to hear how the price fell from nearly $50 in April 2011 to under $14 at recent lows – a stunning decline of 70%. If you inquire further, you’ll likely hear a number of reasons for the decline, ranging from an oversupply of the metal, a strengthening dollar, falling inflation rates, and the collapse of the commodities markets.

What you will not hear is how a specific development has transpired over the past five years that ensures a coming explosion in the future price of silver beyond the most bullish predictions and optimistic upside targets. You’re also not likely to hear that the stunning decline in the price of silver over the past five years was a deliberate feature of an unusually bullish development that promises to change forever the future price landscape.

While I have closely researched the silver market for more than 30 years, uncovering more original findings (including silver’s price manipulation) than anyone, I fully admit that I did not immediately see the monumental change that began to occur five years ago. This astonishing development that had begun in 2011 did not come clear to me until late 2013.

I discovered that the largest U.S. bank, JPMorgan Chase, began to accumulate massive amounts of physical silver starting in 2011 and has continued that accumulation to this day. All told, I believe JPMorgan has acquired somewhere between 400 and 500 million ounces, the largest privately held stockpile of silver in history.

What this means is that the future price of silver is now destined to move far higher in price than anyone can imagine. I wasn’t looking for something to come along that would supersede my already ultra-bullish outlook on silver, but that is what occurred. That’s because the obvious motive JPMorgan has whenever it acquires a large investment position is to profit on that position to the greatest degree possible. And since JPMorgan is now in position to profit enormously when silver prices soar, that means anyone holding silver will profit as well.

How did JPMorgan come to acquire hundreds of millions of ounces of physical silver? It was a circuitous route, beginning in the financial crisis of 2008 when JPMorgan took over a failing Bear Stearns, then the largest short seller in COMEX gold and silver futures contracts. JPMorgan stepped smoothly into Bear Stearns’ role as the main silver and gold price manipulator and proceeded to drive the price of silver from $21 in March 2008 to under $9 through massive short sales on the COMEX. In the years that followed, JPMorgan continued its new role as the largest short seller in COMEX silver and reaped billions of dollars in ongoing profits by shorting silver on price rallies and buying back those short positions after it rigged the prices lower.

With manipulative intent and practice, JPMorgan continued to make illicit profits on the short side of COMEX silver until late 2010. Then a developing physical shortage in silver drove prices to almost $50 by the end of April 2011. JPMorgan was not prepared for the developing physical shortage and the price run up nearly crippled the bank. That’s when it dawned on JPM that it was on the wrong side (the short side) of silver and the bank resolved to get on the right side – the long side. But first, JPMorgan had to get off the short side.

JPM did this by causing silver futures prices to plummet with the full consent of the COMEX and government regulators at the CFTC, a process that has continued to this day. JPM regained control of silver prices on May 1, 2011 and by driving prices sharply lower killed off the developing investment demand that was causing the physical shortage. But while JPMorgan regained control of silver prices on the COMEX, it could not buy as many futures contracts as it desired without causing prices to soar – it needed another angle. That other angle was for the bank to begin to buy physical silver while it continued to sell short COMEX paper futures contracts. This way, JPMorgan could have its cake and eat it too – continuing to profit on paper short sales while acquiring physical silver at the depressed prices it had created. I labeled JPMorgan’s actions as the perfect crime in a public article in December 2014.

JPMorgan behaved illegally in manipulating prices lower while accumulating all the physical silver it could. However, there is no limitation on what any entity can hold in a physical commodity position. Limitations exist (loosely enforced) on what traders can hold in futures and other derivatives, but no such limitations apply to physical positions. This cleared the way for JPMorgan to hold as much physical silver as it could. Since the price of COMEX silver determines the price for silver throughout the world, this put JPMorgan in the catbird’s seat, by enabling it to depress the COMEX price and then scooping up physical silver in prodigious quantities and at ridiculously depressed prices.

As far as the forms of physical silver that JPMorgan has acquired over the past five years, the simple answer is in any form that could be acquired in size. Most of the silver that JPMorgan acquired was in the form of 1,000 ounce bars, the industry standard for silver and the kind deliverable on COMEX futures and held in the worlds silver ETFs and other investment vehicles. JPMorgan has secured hundreds of millions of ounces from the big silver ETF, SLV, and in deliveries against COMEX futures contracts, some of it held in JPM’s own COMEX warehouse, which opened for business in May 2011 and is now the largest COMEX silver warehouse (confirming my timeline). Their warehouse now holds 70 million ounces and is their most visible holding. Harder to see is the 100 million ounces they likely have in their London warehouse where they moved out 100 million ounces of other people’s silver to make room for their own in 2012.

But JPMorgan has also bought silver in the form of American Silver Eagles and Canadian Maple Leafs to the tune of 150 million ounces over the past five years, quickly re-melting the coins into 1,000 ounces bars because it would be impossible to sell so many coins in coin form. In fact, the curious riddle of record sales of Silver Eagles and Maple Leafs over the past five years coupled with bona fide reports of weak retail sales of these coins was an important clue that someone big was buying many of the coins, roughly 50% of all such coins sold.

When I say I wasn’t looking to uncover the most bullish development ever in silver that is an understatement. But as an analyst, I look to the data first and foremost. Not only has that data tipped me off to what JPMorgan has been up to, the continuing flow of public data confirm my conclusion daily. Everything from COMEX silver warehouse movement, deliveries against futures contracts, changes in the big silver ETF, SLV, sales of silver coins from the U.S. and Royal Canadian Mints point to the massive accumulation of silver by JPMorgan. They are positioned to make $100 billion or more in a runaway silver market. They will make $1 billion on a $2 rise in silver.

The very last thing I would be interested in at this stage of my life, is to come up with some wacky premise that threatened to undermine many of my previous findings. I studiously avoid anything that would damage a reputation I have spent decades constructing. On the other hand, if I have discovered the most shockingly bullish silver development ever, how could I not proclaim it far and wide?

I have discovered that JPMorgan has accumulated more physical silver than any private entity in history and I don’t care if great numbers of observers come to agree with me or not. I will openly discuss this with anyone who has questions, but most importantly I would remind you that if I am correct in my assertion anyone who aligns themselves with what JPMorgan has done and buys silver will most likely reap financial rewards of truly amazing proportion.

Silver Polishes Up As Alternative Safe Haven to Gold

2016-03-10T14:09:00.001-08:00

Silver, or poor man's gold as it is known, is largely overlooked as a safe haven asset, but it is now hitting a purple patch and attracting investors.

"Silver right now is really undervalued," said management consultant and investor, Tung Nguyen.

"If you look at the long term historical trends, at the value between gold and silver, the research I did it normally tracks between 30 and 60 and now it's in the 80s. So silver right now is a bargain."

Eighteen months ago Mr Nguyen liquidated all his assets and, after reading dozens of books, invested more than half his money into gold and silver.

As a first generation Vietnamese immigrant, Tung Nguyen said financial security is important to his family.

"We were really worried about where the economy was heading," said Mr Nguyen.

"We felt that Australia was really heavily exposed to China, which is slowing down, and what that meant was the share prices and the property prices would have to come down.

"And so I was trying to find something that would provide us with a bit of a hedge in case those asset classes came down."

Tung Nguyen buys his silver and gold bars at ABC Bullion.

The company's chief economist Jordan Eliseo said demand from retail investors - particularly self-managed super funds - is enjoying a big upswing.

"We have seen precious metal turnover go up by a factor of six since the GFC (global financial crisis)," he said.

"In terms of dollar values sold very much around 50:50 around gold and silver - both assets are increasingly popular amongst investors looking for a safe haven asset in their portfolios."

Silver Price Resurgence

After dragging along at $US4 or $US5 an ounce through most of the 1990s, silver hit highs of almost $US49 in 2011.

Like gold, it then went on a general slide downwards, until this year. It has now bounced back up to $US15.60.

Brokers use the spot price to buy on behalf of retailers, but a benchmark price on the London Bullion Market - set by an electronic auction mechanism - is used by large traders, such as miners and jewellers, to settle silver products and derivatives contracts.

It was thrown into disarray in January when the benchmark price was set far below the spot and futures price, leading participants to claim the system is broken.

"The problem with the setting of prices in London is that there's not the depth of market makers there," said BetaShares chief economist David Bassanese.

"So you've had the price formally set on occasion falling well outside the range on futures markets for example."

Most of the purchases come from industrial fabricators, where global annual demand is 600 million ounces of silver.

Silver is used in electronics, including mobile phones, in the solar industry, and for producing plastics and detergents.

"Industrial demand has stayed incredibly strong because of silver's qualities as a metal, and businesses finding applications they can utilise silver in." said Mr Eliseo.

"Prices have risen, but it is such a small component they haven't rushed to find replacement metals, unlike gold which is almost exclusively a monetary metal and used for investment purposes.

"Silver will be wearing that industrial and monetary metal status for many years to come."

Tung Nguyen certainly hopes so as he is holding on to his stockpiles for now.

"Extremely happy," he said. "My son's also an investor, he's 14 years old and he's sitting on a small stockpile of silver as well."

A long play for such a young investor.

Perth Mint 10 Kg 2016 Lunar Monkey Silver Coin

2016-02-29T13:43:00.000-08:00

The Perth Mint announced that it will soon be selling its 2016 Year of the Monkey 10 Kilo Silver Coin on a mint-to-order basis.

The Mint’s Web site notes that this item has a maximum mintage of 150 pieces.

The reverse image depicts two monkeys sitting in a peach tree; peaches are a traditional symbol of longevity and immortality. Inscribed near the rim of the coin are the Chinese character for ‘monkey’ and YEAR OF THE MONKEY, along with the Perth Mint’s ‘P’ mintmark.

The obverse features Ian Rank-Broadley’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, with the inscriptions ELIZABETH II, AUSTRALIA, 10 KG 999 SILVER, 2016, and the denomination of 300 DOLLARS.

The Year of the Monkey alludes to 2016’s place in a twelve-year lunar cycle according to Chinese astrology. The Year of the Monkey pertains to those whose year of birth includes 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, and, of course, 2016. People born in the Year of the Monkey are said to be intelligent, optimistic, and ambitious, according to a Mint press release.

The 2016 Year of the Monkey 10 Kilo Silver Coin will be available from the Perth Mint’s authorized bullion distributors – To purchase this coin visit the Perth Mint Bullion Program

- See more at: http://australiasilver.com/perth-mint-10-kg-2016-lunar-monkey-silver-coin/#sthash.C7hl8ogF.dpuf

Aggressive Silver Capping Continues

2016-02-28T04:19:00.001-08:00

At some point, the question becomes "why". With gold now up 17% year-to-date, silver is up just half that amount at 9.5%. And yet, the latest CoT report shows the highest silver Commercial net short position since 2008. Again, why? Why now?

Why are The Banks shorting Silver so aggressively?

That's truly the $64MM question. Why are The Silver Banks shorting so aggressively here? What's the difference in holding price below $16 versus $18 or $20? We'll get a look at the latest CoT data tomorrow but, for now, consider this:

There was a CoT survey taken on Tuesday, December 29, 2015. The closing price of silver that day was $13.93. The data showed that the Silver Commercial NET short position was just under 30,000 contracts as they were long 52,149 contracts and short 82,027.

The most recent CoT data released last Friday was surveyed back on Tuesday, February 16. That day, silver closed at $15.33. Versus December 29, price had risen by $1.40 or almost exactly 10%. And how had the Silver Commercial NET short position changed? They were now long 44,638 contracts and short 114,700 for a NET short position of 70,062 contracts. Again, this is the largest Silver Commercial NET short position since 2008.

Additionally, look at what has transpired in the six days since that last CoT survey. Total Comex silver open interest has risen by another 7,000 contracts, which very likely increases the Silver Commercial NET short position to over 75,000 contracts...all the while, price has actually fallen by 4¢.

Therefore, it isn't very difficult to predict what's likely to come next. A price raid. Do you recall this chart from last October?

Or how about this chart from last Friday?

Therefore, it isn't very difficult to predict what's likely to come next. A price raid. Do you recall this chart from last October?

It is abundantly clear that JPM and their fellow Big Shorts on the Comex are intent upon attempting to enforce lower prices. Otherwise, why would they be so adamant about selling into and capping every attempted rally? And this latest capping effort is the most egregious yet! It's perfectly fine for any entity, Commercial or Spec, to liquidate longs into an ongoing rally and, as noted above, the Silver Commercials have dumped nearly 7,500 contracts so far in 2016. However, what is definitely NOT fine is to allow the unlimited creation of paper silver in order to meet Speculator paper demand.

Again, note that the Silver Commercial gross short position back in late December was 82,027 contracts. That's a contractual obligation to deliver up to 410MM ounces of silver if called upon to do so. As of last Tuesday February 16, the Silver Commercial gross short position had grown to 114,700 contracts or 573MM ounces of silver. That's 60% of all the silver the world will mine in 2016!

So the questions must be asked again:

Where would price be today if the Silver Commercials had not sold and shorted so many contracts into this 2016 rally?
And if the buyer/seller equilibrium price was $18 instead of $15, what would be the difference?
And why are the Commercials so intent upon capping silver? Over the same time period, gold has risen 17% but the Gold Commercial NET short position remains below levels seen at price peaks in 2014 and 2015.

So, we'll have to see what happens next. Logic dictates that a price raid is coming that will allow the Commercials to buy back and cover some of their short position while the Specs stream for the exits. But then what? The chart above shows an increasingly untenable position for JPM and their friends. Paper price seems to have been driven as artificially low as possible, thus the effort made to hold it back is increasing. And we haven't even mentioned the gold:silver ratio!

What's the best strategy for dealing with all of this? For me, it's the continued, gradual stacking of physical silver. Predicting the precise date of the failure of the silver manipulation scheme is a fool's errand. But, fail it will, just as all price manipulations before it have similarly failed. And, WHEN it fails, the events will be spectacular to behold.

2016 Australia Kangaroo Silver Bullion Coin

2015-09-15T03:06:00.000-07:00

New in 2016 – Australia Kangaroo Silver Bullion $1 Coin

This latest addition to the Australian Bullion Coin Program gives investors the opportunity to secure the country’s animal icon, which has traditionally been found on its premium gold investment coin series, in pure silver.

The new Silver Kangaroo bullion coin honours the classic design which has featured on the Australian Kangaroo gold kilo release for more than two decades, and is the first Australian coin to be struck to the purity of 9999 silver.

Offering a new security detail, the coin includes an authentication feature in the form of a micro-laser engraved letter ‘A’, which can be found within the first A of AUSTRALIA. It is only detectable under a magnifying glass and is designed to make it significantly more difficult for the coin to be counterfeited.

Product Specifications:

Weight: 31.1g
Series: Australian Kangaroo
Mint: The Perth Mint Australia
Mintage: Unlimited
Purity: 999.9/1000
Diameter, mm: 40.60
Thickness, mm: 4.00
Face value: $1 AUD
Currency: Australian Dollar

Available in Mini Monster boxes – 250oz (ten tubes of 25oz)

2016 Australia Lunar Monkey Silver Bullion Coin

2015-09-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

This Silver coin celebrates the ninth animal in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac. In Chinese culture, those who are born under the influence of this sign are said to be intelligent, quick-witted, optimistic, ambitious and adventurous.

The 2016 Silver Lunar Year of the Monkey coin features an adult monkey sitting on a branch of a peach tree, which is symbolic of lovevity and immortality.

The Australian Lunar Monkey silver coin is available in the following weights:

1/2oz, 1oz, 2oz, 5oz, 10oz and 1kg

2016 Silver Lunar Monkey available in 1/2oz, 1oz, 2oz, 5oz, 10oz and 1kg

The Chinese character for ‘Monkey’ and the inscription ‘Year of the Monkey’ also appears in the design with The Perth Mint’s ‘P’ mintmark..

The coin’s obverse depicts Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the year-date, weight, fineness and the monetary denomination.

About the Design:

A pattern of lines forming a circle immediately inside the rim, surrounding a representation of an adult monkey and a young monkey holding a peach, sitting on a branch with leafy foliage and a peach to the side.

The coin includes the following inscriptions ‘Year of the Monkey’, the Pinyin pictograph pronounce ‘hóu’ and meaning monkey and the initials of the designer Ing Ing Jong ‘IJ’.

Keywords:

monkey, silver monkey, lunar monkey, perth mint monkey, bullion monkey, silver australia silver, silver coins, silver bullion

- See more at: http://australiasilver.com/2016-australia-lunar-monkey-silver-bullion-coin/#sthash.XkZ624NC.dpuf

New Engelhard Australia Silver Bullion Bars

2015-07-18T06:52:00.002-07:00

Engelhard Australia is back! This historic brand is once again producing investment bullion bars. Engelhard silver bars are attractively cast with the modern Engelhard Australia logo on the front, and the weight and fineness on the back.

Every bar is Every bar is serialised and individually boxed in a protective cardboard shipper for protection.

These bars are available in 5oz & 10oz

See more about Engelhard Australia Silver Bars

New Engelhard, engelhard Australia, australia Silver, silver Bullion, bullion Bars

- See more at: http://australiasilver.com/new-engelhard-australia-silver-bullion-bars/#sthash.Vv9tWeqr.dpuf

Perth Mint Gold and Silver Bullion Sales Jump in June

2015-07-13T17:35:00.001-07:00

Demand for Australian bullion coins surged in June, the latest Perth Mint figures show. Gold sales scored their highest level since March and silver sales moved the quickest since April. Bullion sales did retreat from a year earlier, however.

Perth Mint sales of gold coins and gold bars advanced 31,019 ounces last month, rallying 43.1% from the 21,671 ounces sold in May but down 21.3% from the 39,405 ounces delivered in June 2014. Gold sales through the first half of the year tally to 168,650 ounces, off 30% from last year’s starting six-month total of 240,991 ounces.

Perth Mint silver coins at 384,586 ounces in June jumped 13.9% from the prior month’s 337,511 ounces yet slipped 34.4% from sales of 586,358 ounces in June of last year. For the first half of 2015, silver sales combine to 2,810,994 ounces for a drop of 18% from the same six-month start in 2014 when sales reached 3,428,336 ounces.

Perth Mint Gold and Silver Sales by Month

Below is a monthly breakdown of Perth Mint bullion sales from June 2014 to June 2015.

Perth Mint Bullion Sales (in troy ounces)
	Silver	Gold
June 2015	384,586	31,019
May 2015	337,511	21,671
April 2015	472,273	26,545
March 2015	638,557	34,260
February 2015	392,114	31,981
January 2015	585,953	23,174
December 2014	477,731	40,211
November 2014	851,836	49,904
October 2014	655,881	55,350
September 2014	756,839	68,781
August 2014	818,856	36,369
July 2014	577,988	25,103
June 2014	586,358	39,405

United States Mint Bullion Sales in June

U.S. Mint bullion sales in June soared over the prior month and the year ago levels. The agency’s core American Gold Eagles at 76,000 ounces leapt 253.5% higher than May sales and jumped 56.7% higher than sales in June 2014. Its flagship American Silver Eagles at 4,840,000 ounces in June surged 139.2% from the prior month and rallied 79.8% from a year ago.

Silver Prices About to Hit $50.00 Per Ounce?

2015-06-29T02:02:00.001-07:00

Silver is one of the most under appreciated commodities around. Back in 2011, an ounce of gold was worth 32 ounces of silver. Today, that same ounce of gold translates to 74 ounces of the grey metal. Does that mean gold has gotten more valuable or that silver has gotten cheaper?

Since its peak a few years ago, silver prices have dropped nearly 70%. Gold prices have also fallen by an astonishing 35% during the same period, which convinces me that investors got overly pessimistic about silver during the pullback.

So, what should the true price of silver be?

In order to properly value silver, we need the silver-to-gold ratio. Historically, silver shadows the movement of gold prices. When gold drops, silver prices are close behind.

Over the last 40 years, the conversion averages out to 42.8 ounces of silver for one ounce of gold. But the relationship fluctuates and sometimes one of the metals will become significantly undervalued.

When the ratio drifts too far from the historical average, it usually foreshadows a big run. This has happened three times in the last 20 years; in 1995, 2003, and 2011. The respective gains for silver prices were 70%, 200%, and 420%.

If we assume the same gold price and use the 2011 conversion rate, silver should be around $36.60. Right now, the price of silver is hovering around $15.90, with a conversion rate of 74.0.

That being said, how can silver possibly go to $50.00?

Well, despite its apparent cheapness, silver is simply not as abundant a metal as investors seem to think. When you compare the actual deposits of silver and gold in the earth, the natural multiple is 17.0. Ideally, the physical relationship between silver and gold deposits should dictate the price relationship.

In order for silver to hit $50.00, the ratio would have to drop to 23.0, assuming that gold stays at its current price of $1,170.

However, if the stock market bubble finally bursts, investors may flee to gold and silver as a safe haven. Under those circumstances, silver could rise to $50.00 much quicker.
Follow the Smart Money

I’m not the first person to notice this amazing buying opportunity.

In the first quarter of 2015, billionaire investor Ray Dalio loaded up on more shares of Silver Wheaton Corp. (NYSE/SLW). The hedge fund manager now owns 510,000 shares valued at roughly $9.0 million.

If you want to cash in on a huge silver run, but are hesitant to own silver directly, Silver Wheaton may be a wise choice. The company finances smaller mining firms and pays for any silver they find, thus limiting the downside risks associated with managing a mine.

The stock is down almost 34% over the last year because of depressed commodity prices, but Ray Dalio and I both think that will change.

Low interest rates from the Federal Reserve have been propping up the stock market, but a rate hike later this year is virtually guaranteed. And when the market loses support from the Fed, a flight to safety will mean huge gains for silver.

Silver Buying Only Starting

2015-05-15T16:31:00.001-07:00

Silver Buying Only Starting - Silver Investment News

Silver has enjoyed a fantastic week, awakening from its bottoming slumber to surge with gold. And this strong silver investment demand is likely only starting. American stock traders and futures speculators control two of the world’s largest pools of capital active in the silver market. And the former group still remains woefully under-invested in silver, while the latter still has massive short positions left to cover.

The global leader in fundamental silver analysis is the venerable Silver Institute, a think tank primarily funded by the world’s biggest and best silver miners. Every year, it publishes excellent comprehensive data on global silver supply and demand. Last year, total worldwide silver demand ran 1067m ounces. But investing in silver coins, bars, and ETFs only accounted for 197m, less than 1/5th of total demand.

Silver investment’s relatively small slice of that demand pie implies it isn’t important, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Silver’s two largest demand categories are industrial fabrication and jewelry, weighing in at about 4/7ths and just over 1/5th respectively. But these are very inelastic, they just don’t change much regardless of silver’s price. This is readily evident in the Institute’s past decade of data.

The average silver price in the last 10 years has been a roller coaster, skyrocketing from just over $7 in 2005 to over $35 in 2011 before collapsing back down near $19 in 2014. Yet global industrial demand was 639m ounces in 2005, 628m in 2011, and 595m last year. There is often no substitute for silver in manufactured products, and they use so little per unit that companies really don’t care what silver’s price is.

But silver investment demand varies dramatically with the shifting whims of traders’ sentiment towards this volatile metal. Over the past decade it has ranged from 52m ounces on the low side in 2005 to 289m on the high side in 2008, an incredibly volatile range! And since any market’s prices are effectively set by marginal new buying and selling, nothing is more important for silver prices than investment demand.

The past decade’s average annual silver investment demand was 196m ounces, which 2014’s 197m is dead on. For our purposes today, let’s round that to 200m ounces per year. That works out to under 17m per month. This basic background knowledge of global silver investment demand is essential in order to understand just how bullish silver looks today since this latest round of buying is likely only starting.

Traditional silver investing in physical coins and bars is the largest category of investment demand, averaging 136m ounces per year over the last decade. But it’s challenging to track, since the myriads of silver dealers and investors around the world don’t have to report their transactions. Silver ETFs, on the other hand, report their holdings daily and are easily collated. Their demand averages 67m ounces per year.

The world’s flagship silver ETF is the mighty iShares Silver Trust, which trades as SLV in the States. Its holdings this week were nearly 324m ounces, the equivalent of about a year and 2/3rds of worldwide investment demand. Launched in April 2006, it is the easiest, fastest, and cheapest way for American stock investors to gain silver exposure in their portfolios. This opened silver up to vast new pools of capital.

Silver has always had a zealous hardcore base of investors who decry any type of “paper silver”, which includes ETFs. If it’s not physical silver in their own possession, they want nothing to do with it. While I’ve always personally used and recommended that classic method of silver investing, it’s not for everyone. A lot of investors ranging from hedge funds to institutions legally can’t buy or don’t want the hassles of physical.

And silver ETFs are a perfect alternative for them. These investors buy ETF shares for a trivial fraction of what the premiums run on physical silver, and SLV in particular tracks the silver price perfectly. This can only happen because SLV is a conduit for stock-market capital to flow into and out of physical silver bullion. SLV’s managers have to constantly adjust SLV’s holdings to keep their ETF’s price mirroring silver’s.

When stock traders buy SLV shares faster than silver itself is being bought, they threaten to decouple to the upside. So SLV’s managers issue enough new ETF shares to offset this excess demand. Then they plow the proceeds directly into physical silver bullion held in trust for their shareholders. Thus any differential buying pressure on SLV shares directly bids up the underlying global physical silver market.

And just as silver is on the verge of a major breakout following this week’s sharp rally, American stock investors owning silver via SLV are still woefully underinvested by recent standards. This first chart looks at SLV’s silver-bullion holdings, with SLV’s price superimposed on top. And it reveals big room for new SLV buying, which will shunt stock-market capital directly into silver and accelerate its price gains.

Despite the very weak silver prices in recent years and resulting extreme bearishness on this precious metal, SLV’s holdings have actually risen on balance. They have enjoyed an exceptionally well-defined uptrend channel in the last several years, which seems pretty amazing. But realize that as silver’s price dropped, the amount of stock-market capital invested in SLV shares still contracted though its holdings grew.

Over this chart’s span, silver peaked just under $37 per ounce in late February 2012. That day SLV’s holdings of 313m ounces were worth $11.6b. Silver’s brutal bear market finally looks to have bottomed in early November 2014 at just over $15 per ounce. By that day SLV’s holdings had grown to 343m ounces, but this hoard was only worth $5.3b. So the SLV holdings’ uptrend is not as counter-intuitive as it seems.

Though SLV’s holdings climbed 9.7% between silver’s two extremes of recent years, the value of that silver plummeted 54% which was right in line with silver’s 58% loss over this span. So American stock investors certainly haven’t been hot on silver. In the middle of this week, as silver surged 3.8% to retake $17, SLV’s holdings were worth just $5.5b. That is vanishingly small, a trivial drop in the stock-capital bucket.

For comparison, of the 500 companies included in the benchmark S&P 500 stock index, only 26 had market capitalizations of $5.5b or less as of the end of last month. So American stock investors still have virtually nothing invested in silver. As silver continues rallying, they will start getting interested and then excited and buy in. And that differential buying will catapult silver higher, accelerating its rally and allure.

Only time will tell how much SLV buying we’re going to see, but it has the potential to be really big. This ETF’s peak silver holdings of just over 366m ounces came back in late April 2011 as silver was rocketing up over $48 in a speculative mania. That day SLV’s holdings were worth $17.2b, or 3.1x higherthan this week’s levels! But it could take massive silver gains over years to fuel such a big jump in stock capital invested.

More interesting for the near-term is the SLV-holdings uptrend. Silver has remained epically out of favor since its dismal bottom late last year. Since then its price has largely languished in a super-low trading range, mostly grinding listlessly sideways. So American stock investors have had no incentives at all to up their silver exposure. But this week’s young rally is already starting to change that bearish psychology.

SLV’s holdings around 324m ounces in the middle of this week certainly reflect the universal apathy and antipathy towards silver. As sentiment shifts from extreme bearishness back towards neutral, SLV is likely to see serious differential buying pressure on its shares. Remember that if stock traders bid up SLV shares faster than silver itself is rallying, SLV’s managers have to issue shares to buy more silver bullion.

Today the upper resistance of SLV holdings’ uptrend of recent years is around 352m ounces. Regaining that level would require over 28m ounces of differential buying. And even in silver’s dark recent years, SLV has witnessed multiple holdings surges from support to resistance that didn’t take much time at all. They happened in early 2013, mid-2013, and mid-2014, and each only took a couple months or so.

So the near-term silver buying potential from American stock traders is great. They remain woefully underinvested in silver right as it’s starting to surge, and they are likely to buy SLV shares aggressively enough to force a holdings build on the order of 28m ounces in a couple months. Remember that global monthly investment demand averages under 17m, so that’s a colossal boost from SLV buying alone.

Running these numbers, enough SLV differential buying merely to return its holdings back up to recent resistance would boost global silver investment demand by 85% for a couple months! That’s one major reason why I suspect the recent silver buying is only starting. And the really bullish and exciting thing is nothing begets buying like buying. The more silver rallies, the more investors will notice it and start to chase it.

But despite that large pool of capital by silver’s standards deployed in SLV, there’s another pool that just dwarfs it. There’s no one on the planet that moves more capital into and out of silver than the American futures speculators. They aggressively trade silver’s flows and ebbs with extreme leverage, exerting the greatest influence on silver’s daily price action. And theirshort positions are the key to silver’s near-term fortunes.

This next chart looks at the total levels of long and short silver futures contracts held by these dominant American futures speculators. This data is published weekly by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission in its famous Commitments of Traders reports. And the latest read current to last Tuesday reveals high short positions remaining in silver futures. These large bets will soon have to be covered.

While silver’s long-term price levels are ultimately a function of global supply and demand, in the short term American futures trading is the whole game. Note the super-strong inverse correlation between the SLV price in blue and speculators’ total silver-futures short contracts in red. Silver plunges when they aggressively short it, and then rallies when they subsequently scramble to exit those leveraged bearish bets.

This outsized influence of futures shorting on silver’s price is primarily a function of two things. First, as silver has fallen deeply out of favor in recent years investing interest has dramatically waned. So the influence of futures speculation on silver prices rose proportionally. Second, futures trading is a hyper-risky zero-sum game played with extreme leverage. That gives futures speculators outsized silver-price impact.

Each silver futures contract controls 5000 ounces of silver, which is worth $85,000 even at this week’s still-terribly-depressed silver prices. Yet speculators only need to keep $7700 in their accounts for each silver contract they own, the current minimum maintenance margin. That means they can run leverage of up to 11x, which is extreme. In the US stock markets, leverage has been legally limited to 2x since 1974.

At 11x leverage, a mere 9% move by silver against speculators’ positions will wipe out 100% of the capital they risked. And they could lose even more than originally bet if they face margin calls! Silver has always had a well-deserved reputation as an exceedingly-volatile metal, so 9% moves are nothing. This past Tuesday and Wednesday, silver surged 5.4% and that was modest by silver’s wild standards.

Speculators shorting silver, betting on its price falling, effectively have toborrow that silver before they sell it. This saddles them with the legal contractual obligation to buy that silver back to repay their silver debt. So high silver-futures short positions by this group of traders are very bullish for this white metal since they represent guaranteed near-future buying. As this chart shows, silver soon rallies after major shorting.

While speculators’ silver-futures short positions today aren’t extreme by recent years’ epic levels, they are still very high. As of last Tuesday’s CoT data, the latest available when this essay was published, American speculators held 49.6k short-side contracts. That is a huge bearish bet on silver prices. Between 2009 to 2012, the last normal years for the precious-metals markets, their short-side bets averaged just 21.5k.

The reason silver collapsed in early 2013 was because gold suffered its worst quarterly loss in 93 years thanks to the Federal Reserve’s radically-unprecedented QE3 manipulations in the financial markets. As the Fed levitated the general stock markets, demand for alternative investments led by gold withered. And silver is ultimately a leveraged play on gold, amplifying the yellow metal’s price action in both directions.

But even since then in the Fed’s epically-distorted markets, speculators’ total silver short contracts have rapidly contracted to or near 27k four separate times. This is support for speculator shorting in recent years. So it’s highly likely this group of traders’ downside silver bets will once again sharply fall back to these levels in the coming months. And that represents incredible levels of buying to catapult silver higher.

As of that latest CoT report, American speculators would have to buy to cover 22.6k contracts merely to return to that 27k short-side support level. And in the futures markets, the price impact of buying a long contract to offset and cover an existing short and buying a new long contract is identical. With each short contract representing 5000 ounces, this support approach would require an amazing 113m ounces of buying!

Now remember annual global silver investment demand averages around 200m ounces, so this short covering alone is equivalent to about 7 months of normal demand. And as the chart above shows, once these short-covering episodes get underway they unfold fast. The more speculators who buy to cover, the faster the silver price rallies. And the sharper silver’s climb, the more pressure on remaining traders to cover.

It’s only taken two or three months in recent years for speculators to buy back enough of their shorts to drive them back down to that 27k-contract support line. And that was from even higher total-short levels. So let’s assume a couple months for this next support approach. Run the numbers on that, and this coming short covering equates to staggering buying of over 56m ounces per month. That’s incredible!

During that short-covering frenzy, silver demand from this mandatory futures buying would run 3.4x the normal monthly average just under 17m ounces! If investors are migrating back into silver at the same time, both in physical and ETF terms, silver is going to power dramatically higher during that brief span. And investors returning becomes more and more likely with each passing day of silver rallying on balance.

So looking at SLV holdings and American speculators’ silver-futures shorts alone, silver buying is only starting. Both groups of traders are likely to shift large amounts of capital into silver in a short period of time, on the order of a couple months. And they will soon be joined by investors from around the world, in a surge of new buying that will almost certainly ignite silver’s next major upleg. Its upside potential is great.

Investors can certainly play this in traditional physical silver coins and bars or through the ETFs led by SLV. Since silver is so universally loathed these days, investors have forgotten that its price averaged over $31 in 2012 before the Fed’s extreme stock-market distortions. And as those are gradually unwound, starting with the coming rate hikes, precious metals should mean revert back up to pre-QE3 normal levels.

But however great silver’s coming gains will be, the beaten-down silver stocks will achieve multiples of that. This entire sector has been left for dead, but has extreme profits leverage to these dismal silver-price levels. At Zeal we recently finished a 3-month research project to uncover the silver stocks with the best fundamentals to thrive. Our dozen favorites are profiled in depth in a popular new report. Buy yours today and get deployed before silver’s upleg accelerates and silver stocks soar!

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The bottom line is the recent silver buying is likely only just starting. American stock investors remain woefully underinvested in silver, while American futures speculators remain heavily short it. Even in the anomalous recent years, it’s only taken a couple of months or so for both extremes to normalize. And that buying alone would run multiples of normal global silver investment demand over that span.

The resulting silver rally will probably be quite big and strong emerging from such bearish sentiment extremes. And it will motivate legions of investors around the world to redeploy in silver again. The more they buy, the faster silver will rally. And that will attract in even more investors, once again forming that very powerful bullish virtuous circle that silver is so famous for. Silver has real potential to surprise on the upside.

2015 Australian Wedge-Tailed Eagle 1oz Silver Bullion Coin

2015-05-12T15:13:00.000-07:00

2015 Australian Wedge-Tailed Eagle 1oz Silver Bullion Coin from the Perth Mint

The Perth Mint is delighted to offer investors a new bullion coin featuring this majestic bird which is known to soar to dizzying heights.

The coin’s reverse depicts an impressive Wedge-tailed Eagle in mid-flight as it prepares to land on a tree branch. The design also includes the inscription AUSTRALIAN WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE, the 2015 year-date and The Perth Mint’s ‘P’ mintmark.

Each bullion coin is presented in an acrylic capsule, from an unlimited mintage.

2015 Australian Wedge-Tailed Eagle 1oz Silver Bullion Coin

One of our favourite silver bullion coins of 2014, indeed of modern times, the Wedge-Tailed Eagle coin designed by John Mercanti for the Perth Mint had its debut last year. First released as high-relief silver and gold coins with mintages of 10,000 and 1,000 respectively back in January 2014, they followed up with a standard silver proof and a fantastic five-ounce high relief coin last May. This year will almost certainly see new releases of most, or all of those.

The bullion coin, while not as impressive as the completely sublime High-Relief versions, remains a beautiful piece, and if last years mintage limit is repeated, a relatively rare one by bullion standards.

COIN Specifications

Metal Content (Troy oz)	1.000
Fineness (% purity)	99.90
Minimum Gross Weight (g)	31.135
Monetary Denomination (AUD)	1.00
Maximum Diameter (mm)	40.600
Maximum Thickness (mm)	4.000

About the Wedge-Tailed Eagle

The Wedge-tailed Eagle is Australia’s largest bird of prey and one of the biggest eagles in the world. Found throughout mainland Australia, Tasmania and southern New Guinea, the Wedge-tailed Eagle has a wingspan of up to 2.7 metres, and displays a long, wedge-shaped tail and feathered legs.

Last year, 10% of the 50,000 mintage was sold by Australian dealer Ainslie Bullion but we’re currently unsure when or if they will be the dealer selling them this year. We understand that any Australian issued coin has to have 10% of its mintage sold in Australia, thus explaining why GovMint don’t get all the coins to themselves. This would indicate that the same would be the case this year, but GovMint do not list a mintage for the 2015 release, so how many an Australian dealer would get is unclear at present. We’ll try to find out.

2015 Agro Junior 1oz Silver $5 Proof Coin

2015-05-06T01:26:00.001-07:00

The Mint’s collaboration with Australia Zoo, the sixth coin in the popular Australian Saltwater Crocodiles series features our favourite crocodile of the moment, Agro Junior.

Becoming fearfully lifelike on the newest coin, the meticulous high relief technique has allowed our coin designer to provide much more depth to the design.

Appearing like a scene captured from Australia Zoo’s Crocoseum, Agro Junior lies eagerly in wait on a creek bed. With an extremely low mintage of only 1500 and an unheard-of price for a strictly limited edition product, this stunning coin will not be lurking around for long.

2015 Agro Junior Silver $5 Proof Coin

Product Information:

Issue Mint: The Royal Australian Mint
Legal Tender: Australian $5
Mintage: 1,500
Material: 99.9% Silver
Condition: Brand New in original issue condition.
Issue Price: $100.00 AUD

HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE:

Whether you call it the saltwater crocodile, the estuarine crocodile or crocodylus porosus, it is the largest reptile roaming the earth today. Lurking in dark and murky waters around the northern areas of Australia, they can surprise and terrify a wide range of prey. Anything that flies, swims or roams in its watery region is fair game for this formidable creature.

Since 1988, 37 year-old Agro has lived in the comfort of Australia Zoo’s Crocoseum. This 15 foot wonder was captured from the wild to protect him from the hunters who were stalking his Cattle Creek home. Not only did he find a new home, but he found love with Cookie, a ten-foot lady crocodile who is the calmest and gentlest of crocs in the enclosure.

Agro and Cookie raised a son, Agro Junior, the star of this new collectable coin.

FEATURES AND DESIGN:

• A new coin in the Australian Saltwater Crocodile series, continuing a proud collaboration with Australia Zoo
• High relief coin captures Agro Junior in stunning detail, to the Royal Australian Mint’s exacting proof standards
• Strictly limited edition of 1500
• The coin and packaging features images of one of Australia Zoo’s beloved crocodiles, Agro Junior
• Minted in precious silver
• Packaged in an attractive presentation case with outer box
• numbered certificate of authenticity
• Obverse features Queen Elizabeth II effigy sculpted by Ian Rank-Broadley
• Australian legal tender

Coin Specifications:

Denomination: $5
Metal : 999 Fine Silver
Diameter: 32.00 mm
Mass: 1 oz
Finish: Proof
Mintage: 1500

Houston – Perth Sister Cities Silver 1/2oz Bullion Coin

2015-05-04T01:11:00.001-07:00

This stunning coin pays homage to the special relationship shared by Houston, Texas and Perth, Australia.

The energy-themed coin originated with the founding of the Houston-Perth Sister City Association (HSPCA) in 1984, which was based on historical naval ties in WWII and the strong synergies between the two cities’ energy sectors.

Today, Houston and Perth are two of the largest energy hubs in the world, and recently celebrated 30 years of partnership.

The ties between Houston and Perth can initially be traced to the World War II battle of Sunda Strait, where both the USS Houston and HMAS Perth attacked a superior force of Japanese ships in an attempt to stall their advance towards Australia.

Both ships were lost along with many men, but their sacrifice allowed the American and Australian navies to halt the Japanese advance and helped forge the relationship now shared by Houston and Perth. The bond between the two cities was further strengthened during John Glenn’s 1962 spaceflight, when the citizens of Perth turned on all their lights, allowing the astronaut to view the city from orbit.

In the 1980s, when Houston sought to expand its global ties, Perth was an ideal partner for cultural, historical, and economic reasons.

This remarkable Sister Cities coin has been exclusively minted by Perth for Texas Precious Metals. Production will be limited to 500,000 coins.

QUALITY
The Perth Mint’s unbeatable minting experience and its use of advanced manufacturing technology contribute to the coins reputation of being the highest quality in the world.

AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT GUARANTEE
Struck by the historic Perth Mint from 99.9% pure silver, each coin’s Australian legal tender status guarantees its weight and purity.

AFFORDABLE
Perth Mint bullion coins are universally recognised as the most affordable means of purchasing silver bullion in the secure form of official, legal tender coins.

BEAUTIFUL
Perth Mint bullion coins are tangible assets that are beautiful to behold. Featuring stunning new artistry each year, they are admired worldwide and are highly collectable.

NUMISMATIC APPRECIATION
As well as annual design changes, the coins’ restricted mintages create the potential for even greater investment return in the form of a numismatic premium.

COIN SPECIFICS:
Year:	2014
Condition:	Brilliant Uncirculated
Weight (Au, Ag, Pt):	1/2 ozt
Minted by:	Perth Mint
Mintage:	500,000
Face Value:	AUD$0.50
IRA:	Approved
Packaging:	Plastic Tube
Coins Per Tube:	25

- See more at: http://australiasilver.com/houston-perth-sister-cities-silver-bullion-coin/#sthash.xYKErg2O.dpuf

Iron Ore Revival Puts Local Miners Back in the Black

2015-04-26T00:05:00.001-07:00

Iron Ore Revival Puts Local Miners Back in the Black

At least least four Australian miners are cash-generative at current iron ore prices, thanks to a 23 per cent rise in the bulk commodity price over the past three weeks.

Another 5 per cent rally in the iron ore price late on Friday night capped a rare good week for the local industry, and pushed the benchmark price to $US57.81.

While BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have easily remained profitable during the recent slump in iron ore prices, it is likely that few other local iron ore exporters were generating cash when the price hit $US47.08 on April 2.

But a weekly gain of 13 per cent means the iron ore price is now at six-week highs, and is believed to be above the "break-even" price for the world's fourth biggest producer, Fortescue Metals Group.

The estimation of break-even prices is fraught given the constantly changing factors involved, but Fortescue is believed to need iron ore prices to be about $US50 per tonne to cover its cost of production, royalties, maintenance spending and its debt obligations.

Fortescue mines at two locations in the Pilbara, with its newer Solomon hub the cheaper operation, while the company's original Chichester precinct is estimated by Deutsche to lose money at benchmark iron ore prices below $US50 per tonne.

The miner has already outlined plans to reduce its costs even further in the 2016 financial year, with a dramatic reduction in the amount of waste ore moved at the Chichester precinct set to drag break-even costs below $US45 per tonne.

The plan, in concert with last week's debt refinancing which pushed the company's next debt repayment back to 2019, should help Fortescue survive the lowest point for iron ore prices, which analysts at Deutsche and Credit Suisse expect to come in between the 2015 and 2017 calendar years.

But Deutsche analyst Paul Young recently opined that Fortescue's revised working plan in the Chichesters is not sustainable longer term, and is likely to be a viable approach for less than two years.

"The change in mine plan at the Chichesters is likely net present value destructive as it will likely shorten mine life and impact product quality," he said in a recent note.

The junior miner that relies on Fortescue to rail, ship and market its product to customers, BC Iron, is also likely to be profitable at the recently improved iron ore price.

According to BC's improved performance during the month of March, UBS believes the miner can be generating cash so long as the benchmark iron ore price is $US55 per tonne or higher.

Those close to break-even around these prices are believed to include Mt Gibson Iron, whose cost position has ironically improved since a wall failure at its Koolan Island mine, and US miner Cliffs Natural Resources, whose Koolyanobbing operation exports through the South Coast of WA.

US miner Cliffs Natural Resources will update investors on Wednesday morning Australian time when it publishes its March quarter results.

Gina Rinehart's Roy Hill project is not expected to start exporting until August or September, and is believed to have a break-even price between $US41 and $US51 per tonne.

Those needing a further improvement in prices include Arrium Limited and Atlas Iron, which ceased operating its mines just over two weeks ago.

While last week's improvement in iron ore prices has injected some hope into the local sector, the rising commodity price has come with some trade-offs.

The Australian dollar, which hurts local miners when it is high, has risen 3 per cent to US78.15¢ over the past two weeks.

Oil prices also appear to have found their bottom, prompting a slight rise in prices for some "bunker fuels", which are consumed by ships that carry commodities like iron ore.

Local miners will be hoping those factors don't continue rising and blunt the impact of improved iron ore prices.

Hammerhead Shark Half Ounce Silver Bullion Coin

2015-04-25T00:22:00.000-07:00

Hammerhead Shark Silver Half Ounce Bullion Coin – Brand new from the Perth Mint

The hammerhead shark is one of the most recognizable creatures on the planet, and the largest of the species, the great hammerhead shark, is now immortalized in Silver. The Perth Mint has introduced the second release in their Shark Series celebrating this unique and unmistakable hunter.

Each of these Beautiful Uncirculated (BU) coins contains 1/2 oz of .999 fine Silver and exhibits a beautiful representation of the strong great hammerhead shark swimming through the water. The coin displays the Silver weight and purity, providing assurance of the high quality of each coin.

Since opening in 1899, the Perth Mint has produced and refined large quantities of Gold, Silver and other Precious Metals.

Today, the Perth Mint is highly involved in producing a wide array of items for collectors and investors. They beautifully combine unique collectible designs with quality bullion value

Coin Highlights:

Contains 1/2 oz of .999 fine Silver.
Multiples of 25 come in a tube. 500 coins will come in “Monster” boxes. Individual coins come in a plastic flip.
Second release in the APMEX exclusive® Perth Mint Shark Series.
Obverse: The Ian Rank-Broadley likeness of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the monetary denomination.
Reverse: Features a great hammerhead shark, surrounded by the name, weight and purity, along with the Perth Mint’s “P” mintmark.

Keywords: silver, australia silver, hammerhead shark silver coin, shark coin, shark silver coin, australia silver

- See more at: http://australiasilver.com/hammerhead-shark-silver-half-ounce-bullion-coin/#sthash.7lXqCGKi.dpuf

Rio Tinto Goes Full Ore Ahead

2015-04-21T05:07:00.001-07:00

Rio Tinto has revealed it shipped 72.5 million tonnes of iron ore from its Pilbara mines during the three months to March

CYCLONE season and a train derailment have slowed Rio Tinto’s iron ore business but the mining titan’s expansion plans remain firmly in place.

The Anglo-Australian miner has revealed it shipped 72.5 million tonnes of iron ore from its Pilbara mines during the three months to March.

The result, revealed in a production update on Tuesday, was 12 per cent lower than the previous quarter but 9 per cent higher than the same period a year earlier.

Rio produced 74.7 million tonnes of iron ore for the March quarter with the difference going into stockpiles.

Production was down 6 per cent on the previous quarter but up 12 per cent year-on-year.

The result missed market expectations but analysts were unfazed as Rio maintained its full-year production forecast at a record 350 million tonnes and said it would draw down on inventories to maximise cash flow throughout the year.

Rio said its operations had been impacted by tropical cyclone Olwyn, which battered the West Australian coast last month, and a train derailment that temporarily blocked access to Dampier port.

Smaller competitors such as Fortescue have been deeply critical of Rio and rival BHP Billiton for continuing to bring on new supply as the price of the key steelmaking ingredient tumbles.

Chief executive Sam Walsh said Rio’s push to milk as many low-cost tonnes from its iron ore business as possible was in the best interests of shareholders over the long term.

“By making best use of our high-quality assets, low cost base, and operating and commercial capability our aim is to protect our margins in the face of declining prices and maximise returns for shareholders throughout the cycle,” he said.

The price of iron ore rose 1.3 per cent to $US51.57 a tonne early on Tuesday after hitting a decade low of $US47.08 a tonne in early April.

Rio produced 144,000 tonnes of copper during the March quarter — a 9 per cent drop on the same time a year earlier due to mining lower grades.

Rio shares closed up 1.5 per cent on Tuesday at $55.50

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Blue Tongue Lizard 2015 1oz Silver Proof Coin – Australia’s Remarkable Reptiles 2015

2015-04-13T16:14:00.000-07:00

Proof Quality 99.9% Pure Silver

The coin is struck by The Perth Mint from 1oz of 99.9% silver in proof quality.

Stunning Coloured Reverse Design

The coin’s reverse portrays a coloured Blue Tongue Lizard displaying its tongue, bordered by a montage of exotic reptile skin patterns. The design also incorporates the inscription BLUE TONGUE LIZARD.

Limited Mintage

No more than 5,000 Australia’s Remarkable Reptiles – Blue Tongue Lizard 2015 1oz Silver Proof Coins will be available for sale worldwide.

Tuvalu Legal Tender

Issued as legal tender under the authority of the Government of Tuvalu, the obverse of the coin depicts the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the monetary denomination and the 2015 year-date.

Presentation Case and Numbered Certificate

The coin is housed in a wooden presentation case and custom designed shipper, and is accompanied by a numbered Certificate of Authenticity

Australia’s Remarkable Reptiles – Blue Tongue Lizard 2015 1oz Silver Proof Coin at The Perth Mint, featuring:

Proof Quality 99.9% Pure Silver
Stunning Reverse Coloured Design
Limited Mintage – 5,000
Tuvalu Legal Tender
Presentation Case and Numbered Certificate
Third Coin Release in Series

The Blue Tongue Lizard is native to Australia and is recognised by its bright blue tongue and brownish grey scales. They are not poisonous and can often be found living peacefully in the same backyard for years, conveniently consuming slugs and snails and sunning themselves by the backdoor, or out under the clothesline.

These slow-moving creatures are found in just about every part of Australia: on the coastal plains; in the mountains; in rainforest; deserts and at least one species is found in every Australian capital city.

Previous releases: Frilled Neck Lizard, Thorny Devil Lizard

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

Silver Content (Troy oz)	1
Monetary Denomination (TVD)	1
Fineness (% purity)	99.9
Minimum Gross Weight (g)	31.135
Maximum Diameter (mm)	40.60
Maximum Thickness (mm)	4.00
Maximum Mintage	5,000

Atlas Iron Suspends Itself From Share Trade Amid Plunging Prices

2015-04-07T02:25:00.001-07:00

Atlas Iron is stumbling in the face of the slumping ore price, suspending itself from the local share market as it tries to map out a future.

Iron ore slumped over the weekend to a fresh low of $US46.70 a tonne on a key Chinese spot market.
Atlas said it has been surprised by the "extent and the pace of the decline in the iron ore price" which it says has fallen 24 per cent since it released its half-year accounts in February.

"The voluntary suspension is requested pending the outcome of an extensive review of the company's operations, financial outlook, asset sale opportunities and capital structure," the company said in a statement to shareholders.

The company said it has already commenced discussions with a number of its stakeholders in relation to various initiatives it is undertaking to reduce costs and preserve value.
Bulk transporter McAleese Group is one of those stakeholders, it has a major iron ore haulage contract with Atlas worth around $250 million and not due to expire until 2017.

McAleese has issued a statement to shareholders saying it will continue to work with Atlas as a priority to "achieve sustainable solutions for both parties."

Atlas shares, which last traded at 12 cents, will remain suspended until the company makes an announcement at the end of the review, which should be in the next fortnight.

The share price has lost 88 per cent in the last 12 months.

Financial advisory and asset management firm Lazard is assisting Atlas with the review.

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South32 – Major in the Making - BHP Billiton

2015-04-05T20:45:00.000-07:00

I am becoming more known these days for my gripes than my enthusiasms. A long held complaint (extant at least 7 years) has been at the denuding of the middle ranks of miners. If one looks at the mining market from a Darwinian perspective (and that is particularly apt in these days of survival of the fittest) the pyramid of life (and we use that word under advisement in the mining space) is extremely out of kilter. We have a handful of majors and vast plethora of juniors and a mid-tier that is severely underpopulated.

This is not a natural situation. If one wonders why mining M&A is in such a torpor one not look much further than the lack of mid-tier companies for majors to munch upon. Just as a T-Rex would not have bothered chasing a squirrel (if they had even existed conterminously) thus mining majors cannot be bothered snuffling in the undergrowth of Vancouver or Perth to look for transactions that are canapés rather than main courses.

However, if we look at majors we have two ways in which they are created. One is by an existing historic major (BHP, Anglo-American, RTZ, Freeport-McMoran) devouring other smaller majors of mid-tier companies or by mid-tier companies bulking up through mergers with like-sized entities to catapult themselves into the top tier.

The survivors have gone beyond the categorization as majors and now are more accurately described as behemoths. There was a spooky moment late last year when the threatened takeover of RTZ by Glencore threatened to even reduce the ranks of the behemoths. Fortunately this proved to be just an attack of wind by Ivan Glasenberg.

Breaking up the Brontosaurs

There has been a spate of proposals in recent times to break up some of the biggest miners. BHP are spinning out South32, Vale are supposedly setting free the nickel (and other base metal) assets in a New INCO and Anglogold Ashanti went through gyrations last year first claiming it would spin out non-African assets and then doing an about-face. Chatter about RTZ disposing of diamonds or uranium interests, through demergers, surfaces from time to time.

Son of BHP

The Vale proposal is, I suspect, waiting to see how South32 goes (and also for a turn in the nickel price) while the Anglogold breakup is off the table (for now). However the South32 deal is very much alive and kicking, with a mid-May launch date.

BHP-Billiton is of course a behemoth with a heavy weighting towards iron ore, coal and oil & gas, but a plethora of other activities. Some bright spark has clearly persuaded the management that it should get rid of lesser activities (like being the largest manganese operations in the world and owning the largest silver mine) and instead focusing upon its three core commodities which all have a weak outlook at the moment. Perish the thought it might be the same type of investment bankers that thought Time Warner AOL might be a good combo! So this looks like a “taking candy from babies” opportunity for canny investors. Big dumb corporation throws baby out with bathwater and the opportunity is to try and catch the baby mid-air.

The spinout has been named South32 in a rather tenuous reference to the latitude upon which most of the major assets lie. Not really accurate, but in the annals of recent corporate namings it is one of the less obscure creations of the “branding arts”. The new entity will have operations in Australia, Brazil, Southern Africa and Colombia. The main assets will be:

GEMCO: largest Manganese ore producer
Cannington: largest silver producing mine (with lead and zinc)
Worsley Alumina: one of the largest alumina refineries
Hillside (aluminium smelter in South Africa), Mozal Aluminium (in Mozambique), Illawarra Metallurgical Coal, Cerro Matoso (nickel mine in Colombia), Alumar Refinery (aluminium in Brazil) and South Africa Energy Coal
Non-operated JV interests in Brazil (mainly a bauxite mine, refinery and smelter)

This makes for a very diversified company, by commodity and customer, with US$8.3bn of revenue in FY2014. The new company will be headquartered in Perth and will have listings on the ASX, JSE and LSE.

The new entity will be one of the major players in Manganese and aluminium; however as the chart below shows most of the revenue streams are rather well-balanced.

Interestingly the company is way less dependent upon China as a customer than many other majors.

Some have speculated that South32 might turn around and ditch the South African coal assets (to Mick Davis’sX2?). I would not shed a tear on that one. The opportunity then would come in bulking up the nickel part of the business, but more excitingly adding to the lead/zinc component to capitalize upon the Cannington position.

I am becoming more known these days for my gripes than my enthusiasms. A long held complaint (extant at least 7 years) has been at the denuding of the middle ranks of miners. If one looks at the mining market from a Darwinian perspective (and that is particularly apt in these days of survival of the fittest) the pyramid of life (and we use that word under advisement in the mining space) is extremely out of kilter. We have a handful of majors and vast plethora of juniors and a mid-tier that is severely underpopulated.

Good examples of this are Barrick which went over decades, through a series of mergers from being nothing special to being a major (and still nothing special). Goldcorp, through its acquisitions of Glamis Gold and Wheaton River, is a better example of 1+1+1 equaling more than the sum of the parts. The mid-tier during the last decade and a half was not “restocked with names” because of the failure of Darwinian forces in the mining space.

Having bemoaned however the lack of the md-tier we might also bemoan the lack of majors. There has been a massive concentration in this group which has resulted in a situation where, back in the 1950s, one could have pointed to a score of diversified majors (many US-based) to a much depleted band these days. The survivors have gone beyond the categorization as majors and now are more accurately described as behemoths. There was a spooky moment late last year when the threatened takeover of RTZ by Glencore threatened to even reduce the ranks of the behemoths. Fortunately this proved to be just an attack of wind by Ivan Glasenberg.

Back in the early 1980s the first stock I ever bought was a very tiny amount of BHP (as it then was) and made a good turn on it. The price was embarrassingly low compared to where the stock stands now but the early 1980s were a grim period for most miners. The first time I have even been tempted to buy BHP since then is now… and strangely it’s so I can sell it… after having stripped out the South32 spin-out as a “keeper”.

Approval for the Demerger is being sought at shareholder meetings to be held in Perth and London on the 6th of May 2015. Under the spin-out proposal eligible shareholders would retain their existing shareholding in BHP Billiton and also receive a new share in South32 for every BHP Billiton share held (at the applicable record date which I understand to be mid-May). After that date South32 will be able to be kept and the BHP Billiton ditched with alacrity.

Perversely this opportunity (probably much to the chagrin of BHP’s execs) reminds me of Morticia Addams chopping the heads off roses to keep the thorny stem.

In the minds of the big strategists in the corporate suite of BHP, the “big metals” are the ones to keep. I would rather grasp the thorny stem any day….

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Metal Prices Aid Glencore’s Chances with Rio Tinto

2015-04-05T20:11:00.001-07:00

The biggest, most complex mining deal ever broached could boil down to a simple ratio: the price of copper versus the price of iron ore.

Glencore PLC, the Swiss mining giant with massive copper holdings, last year proposed a roughly $US150 billion merger with Rio Tinto PLC, among the world’s biggest producers of iron ore. Glencore’s announcement that Rio rebuffed the bid on October 7 set off a six-month moratorium under UK law from another approach.

That cooling-off period ends tomorrow, potentially opening the door to more talks. The two miners had never publicly disclosed potential terms, and Rio (RIO) executives haven’t encouraged new talks.

But two factors have swung in Glencore’s favour that could encourage a deal creating the world’s largest mining company and give investors exposure to every major commodity.

Glencore’s shares are up more than 15 per cent since mid-January, when they briefly hit their lowest level since the company went public in 2011 amid a decline in copper prices, while Rio’s have dipped 3 per cent.

A big reason for the divergence: Ironore prices have continued their long decline from highs of $US190 a tonne reached in 2011, recently hitting a 10-year low below $US50 a tonne. Copper prices, meanwhile, have rebounded by about 5 per cent to just north of $US6,000 a tonne in the past month.

Industry experts also don’t expect to see a recovery in the price of iron ore, a primary steelmaking ingredient, anytime soon. Caroline Bain, senior commodities economist at Capital Economics Ltd. in London, last month forecast that iron-ore prices are likely to hit $US45 a tonne by year-end as large surpluses of iron-ore continue to flood into the market and Chinese demand cools.

Such declines have been driven by unrelenting increase in iron ore production from Rio Tinto and its competitors such as BHP Billiton Ltd. and Vale SA. If production isn’t curbed, prices could continue to fall, analysts say.

“Sooner or later either (Rio is) going to have to back away from the volume-growth strategy, or they’re going to have to face the prospect that their earnings are going to fall through the floor,” said Sanford C. Bernstein mining analyst Paul Gait. If Rio’s earnings keep falling and its share price suffers, “they’re going to be vulnerable to Glencore, “ he said.

Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh has repeatedly said he isn’t interested in a deal with Glencore. At a February event in London, Mr Walsh said bluntly the merger “isn’t going to happen,” indicating he thought Glencore couldn’t pay a high-enough price.

Glencore’s shares have lost about one-fourth of their value since last July, when its chief executive, Ivan Glasenberg, placed a call to Rio Tinto Chairman Jan du Plessis to discuss a potential merger. Since Glencore would need to offer shares as part of the deal, the math has become significantly more daunting for Mr Glasenberg.

Glencore also is heavily exposed to the price of coal, which has stumbled for similar reasons to iron ore. Plus, any deal would face strict scrutiny from antitrust authorities in the UK and Australia, where Rio Tinto is based.

One of Glencore’s main hurdles in executing a Rio Tinto deal is its debt-heavy balance sheet. Glencore had $US30.5 billion in net debt at the end of 2014, compared with Rio’s $US12.5 billion in debt. That puts Glencore’s leverage ratio — net debt divided by the sum of debt and total equity — at about 40 per cent, roughly twice the leverage at Rio Tinto.

That could put a cap on how much more debt Glencore can take on to fund a Rio bid. More debt could threaten its credit ratings, putting pressure on its trading arm, which relies on leverage to fuel its operations.

In Glencore’s favour are rebounding copper prices, which could help push its share price higher. Mr Gait of Sanford C. Bernstein expects copper and other factors to help lift Glencore’s share price to nearly double where it currently stands.

Perhaps the biggest wildcard is China. China’s state-owned aluminium company, Chinalco, is Rio Tinto’s biggest shareholder. It has seen the value of its 9.8 per cent stake in the company cut roughly in half since it made the investment in 2008. Rio in 2009 rebuffed a bid by Chinalco to double its stake, which would have given it a seat on Rio’s board.

Those factors have brewed tensions with Chinalco, potentially leaving Beijing open to new leadership at Rio Tinto, said Michael Komesaroff, a long-time analyst of China and natural-resource trends.

A person who picked up the phone at Chinalco’s Beijing office said nobody was available for comment over the weekend, which was also a holiday in China.

Glencore in its 2013 merger with Xstrata proved it could bargain with the Chinese, getting Beijing’s approval for the deal in part by agreeing to sell its Las Bambas Peruvian copper project to a Chinese consortium.

China, the world’s biggest consumer of copper, is unlikely to have lost its appetite for ownership of copper mines, analysts say. One option for Glencore would be to offer to sell one of Rio’s prized copper mining assets, such as its 30 per cent stake in Chile’s Escondida mine.

“If the Chinese want to make it happen, it’s more than likely going to happen,” said Mr Komesaroff said.

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BC Iron to Cut Costs as Iron Ore Prices Tumble

2015-03-31T05:29:00.001-07:00

BC Iron to Cut Costs as Iron Ore Prices Tumble

Australia's smaller iron ore miners are struggling to keep their heads above water as the price of the steel-making commodity hits a fresh post-global financial crisis low.

The price of Australia's biggest export fell more than two per cent to $US52.90 overnight following a four per cent fall the previous day.

Junior and mid-tier miners are having to reassess their costs as the world's biggest iron ore miners continue flooding the market despite a softening in Chinese demand.

Morgan Ball, the chief executive of junior Pilbara producer BC Iron, says his company is planning more cost reductions after recently meeting with Chinese steel mills.

"Clearly there is a significant supply influx still to come primarily out of Vale and Roy Hill in the short-term and that's why we're setting our business up for a couple of years, but we think we can operate through that," Mr Ball told AAP.

"We have more costs to take out of the business that will help us through this period."

Mr Ball said there were no plans to make further cuts to staff as he keeps a close eye on how many Chinese domestic mines re-open after winter.

Still, there could be some support for the iron ore price after China's central bank eased restrictions on down-payments for second homes and cut taxes to boost its housing market.

"It all helps," Mr Ball said.

"I think we'll see more of those kind of initiatives."

He added that mills and traders in China, India and Indonesia would prefer to deal with more than two or three companies.

Fortescue Metal's chairman Andrew Forrest last week called for a cap on iron ore production, sparking an investigation by the competition watchdog the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

ACCC chairman Rod Sims will focus on cartel conduct in government procurement and in the commodities market, particularly iron ore in the year ahead.

"Mr Forrest has helpfully made that an important issue for us," Mr Sims told a business briefing in Perth.

"As someone who has been watching the mining industry for 40 years, I'm staggered that people don't realise that prices go up, people invest, production comes on, prices go down."

But he said it was hard to prove an attempt to illegally cap production.

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China’s Iron Ore Mines Keep Digging Despite Losses

2015-03-27T05:10:00.001-07:00

About three-quarters of Chinese iron ore mines are in the red, according to remarks on Friday by Yang Jiasheng, chairman of the Metallurgical Mines Association of China, with operating rates as low as 20 per cent of capacity.

Shi Zhenglei, iron ore analyst at Mysteel, reckoned that about half of China’s estimated 1,500 iron mines would be forced to close this year, removing 20 to 30 per cent of national capacity. Many Chinese mines produce low grades of ore.

“Some miners will sell out, but the problem is that it will be hard to find buyers,” he said. “It is also difficult for state-owned companies to acquire small mines due to reasons pertaining to capital and local government.”

While many smaller, private iron ore miners may be willing to sell or at least mothball production, state-owned mines are locked into contracts with mills and may come under pressure to keep going.

Local governments also generally oppose closures that might raise local unemployment rolls. State-owned metals trader Minmetals, for example, has been unable to get permission to close a costly mine in northern China, in spite of the availability of cheaper imported ore.

“Many of the iron ore mines have signed contracts with steel factories,” said Wang Lin, analyst at Lange Steel Information Resource Center in Beijing. “Many are still operating because they want to make sure they have stable supplies for steel factories.”

The drop in prices has also hit higher-cost international miners including Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group, once hailed by the Chinese for its potential to break the market dominance of BHP Billiton and Rio. Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, Fortescue founder and chairman, this week called for a cap to help revive prices.

China’s flagship steel producer Baosteel has joined Rio Tinto in rejecting that suggestion.

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