Thursday, September 04, 2008

Demand the silver you want! Or make your own!




I have to say I’m rather dismayed at the market as such. The way I see it between growing nation debt, teetering banks, the imploding housing market, growing unemployment and the destruction of the U.S. hegemony there is no way the U.S. Dollar should be growing in strength.

An even greater injustice is the prices in the metals market where it is more and more apparent that physical silver and small sizes of physical gold are quickly disappearing from a massive rebirth in interest for metals investing. Yet prices reflect the paper fantasy rather than the physical reality of the metals market.

Talk here and other sites have been sparked interest in the ideas of a silver buyers cooperative(s)/buyers club or the creation of small artisan companies to acquire bulk silver in the form of trade bars(1000 oz) or silver shot (pellets of silver used in jewellery and industry) and convert this silver into the sizes investors actually want, ranging from 10 to 100 oz bars, (while many investors like rounds, the labour and equipment is much more intense and expensive to create uniform blanks and strike them with a 60 tonne press as opposed to casting a small bar)

These approaches are certainly a possibility but it’s going to take some work and some luck to find people interested in such ventures and those with the physical skills (foundry or metal working experience) or and organizational/legal skills to make this work. Of course there is also the need for a business plan that will prove that such conversions to small bars can be done within the current markets range of premiums between large and small silver.

Since I have nothing else to do between my full time job, 2 blogs, 2 hours of commuting/day, a family and my expected participation in a upcoming election campaign, I’m willing to act as a point of contact, organizer, sounding board for anyone else who is interested in such a venture. I’d also be willing to advertise for and sell (and buy for my personal stash) any product made buy such an endeavour. Should you or someone you know and can coerce is interested is this contact me. Ideally we could form such venture in both Canada and the U.S. to keep things simple regarding shipping and customs but one can be made to work.

Take the pole on the side bar regarding willingness to participate in such a venture

My second item today is to ask you for your help. Two weeks ago I wrote the Royal Canadian Mint asking them a bunch of questions and made some suggestions and I’ve received sweet F.A. as a response. I’d like others to approach them with similar queries to see if we can get some movement.

Plz don’t cut and paste, write them with your own thoughts and words.

Essentially what I said was

If you’ve been following the metals market of late you would know that there is a serious disconnect between the paper and physical price of metals, especially silver bullion. This disconnect is most obvious when you look at the higher premiums that silver bars are demanding vs. the current spot prices, demand is not being met and this premium is rising.
So, does the Royal Canadian Mint have any stockpile of small silver? (5,10,20,50,100 oz bars)

Will the mint release any such stockpile to meet this growing demand?

Is the mint currently making, considering making or considering increasing production of this type of product?

If not why? The rising demand for physical silver is allowing silver bars to be sold from 4-6 dollars an ounce above the current spot price depending on size of bar. This would seem to be an ideal business model where the mint could turn 1000oz bars or silver shot into highly demanded products at a 30-40% margin.

Since your mandate states
As a profit making Crown corporation, the Mint's mandate is to produce a fair return on investment for its sole shareholder, the Canadian government.


the mint should be embracing this opportunity to make a fast buck selling the public the silver bars there desire.


Send your queries off and lets see if we can get any satisfaction, thanks