Thursday, Jun 21, 2007
More inflation down the road
Money Week: Metals shortages have a silver lining for investors
If the rest of the world catches up with America and starts consuming these minerals with the same enthusiasm, things look worse: there is only 19 years worth of uranium, less than 10 of silver, 36 of gold and 34 of zinc.
We are pushing planet earth to its limits
Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 11:01 AM (146 views) Add Comment
12 Comments
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1. royston said...
Shows clearly why any near-term price stability or price falls are temporary. Long-term, prices must rise. This is simply because we are running out of stuff. Quick, we had better take metals, fuels and food out of the CPI calculation or we might have to raise interest rates!
2. Andy H said...
This article is simply not true.
There are about half a million tons of silver in the ground. That is about 200 years supply at 25-30 thousand tons use a year. Silver demand for consumer electronics is up but for photography has been crashing for several years. We are not going to run out of silver in 11 years (no matter what the marketing people say).
Silver is one of the most unstable "precious" metals in terms of price with pretty regular 5 or 10% changes. It is an industrial metal, not a precious one. I have several kg of silver at home for making jewellery (because I like working in silver) but I wouldn't touch it as an investment. Gold, platinum and palladium all have better potential as investments or metals with specialist uses.
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4. Mrcuban said...
http://rookietrader.blogspot.com
5. shipbuilder said...
I'd be sceptical of a lot of these forecasts - I read somewhere recently that only about 25% of Australia has been surveyed as far as mineral/metal deposits go and I can imagine the same is true of Siberia, Antarctica, under the oceans etc. Having said that, though, exploration and ever-more difficult extraction will inevitably lead to increased prices anyway. Rememer that some of the mining/oil companies that i'm sure produce these forecasts have employed the likes of Uri Geller in the past.....
6. Bottledit said...
I don't believe the figures for remaining Uranium reserves. I doubt they have taken into consideration the fact that 97% of spent nuclear fuel is Uranium which can be recycled into new fuel. UK and France are the only two countries that currently have the facilities, but with the recent rise in Uranium price, I should imagine it will once again become profitable and therefore become more widespread.
7. uncle tom said...
Agreed - these forecasts only look at commercial mines that were viable a few years ago when prices were much lower - rising prices makes previously uneconomic deposits look attractive, but it takes time to open new mines
He also misses a very significant and important metal - Titanium - there are not many known deposits of this, viable or otherwise, and the price has rocketed..
8. Ticktock said...
...and lets not forget that the markets of both gold and silver are so heavily (and obviously) manipulated (by actors with endless funding) that any forecast must require knowledge of VI future intentions. This is unlikely to be revealed to the likes of us at the time we would wish it to be.
9. cyril said...
Hey, what about recycling?
Presumably the demand for new products will eventually level off and so we will just be into a replacement market. the old cars can be melted down and turned into new ones.
The only things I can think of which can't be recycled are space rockets and ships which sink in deep water.
10. Rickyb said...
It's true that almost all metals can be recycled (possibly with the exception of those converted into other elements by nuclear fusion). As with most things though, this would require large amounts of energy to achieve, and at present recycling is less economically feasible than mining new sources.
11. Rickyb said...
Sorry 'nuclear fusion' - meant to say 'nuclear fission'.
12. Planning4acrash said...
Alchemy anybody?