Hi coach,
It wasn't 30 million new ounces of silver about to hit the market in a few years but multiples of that, probably 120 million ounces or so, that is if those mines referred to in Argoz' post the other day come on line.
"One is Goldcorps Penesquita which will put out about 30 million ounces next year. Another is Escobal which may rival Fresnillo. Barrick is moving forward on Pascua Lama, another 30 million oz per year. Pan American bought Navidad which will be another big one."
Those ounces plus ECU's new possible significant production plus the additional silver you mention from mines expanding production, plus a lot of scrap as prices increase, etc., could, imo, add a lot of new ounces that many investors are not expecting or even aware of, including me. And then there's the effect of a dragged out recession or worse on silver usage.
They may not be big numbers in the overall scheme of things, but they seem significant to me and certainly a surprise as I thought overall production was already on a sharp sustained decline.
However, as you point out in your post, even big numbers will not be enough to offset the bullish factors surrounding silver and not likely to derail the upward move in the price of silver. Works for me, but I'm going to keep an eye on it nevertheless.
