With the excellent research that Steve St Angelo, SRSrocco Report has conducted over the years showing the steady decline of western world silver production it appears this has been overlooked – not just by Mr. St. Angelo but by all the western world silver community including myself. An 11% decline is significant when you add to the declines we have seen in Mexico and the worlds second largest silver mine recently suspending operations.
While Russia is increasing their gold mining production to the tune of 13% – WOW! – they are losing a significant amount of silver. As we have reported in the past, Russia has very significant silver holdings. While we have not been able to confirm the volume of silver Russia is holding we believe they are holding several million ounces of physical silver in the Russian Central Bank. You tell us how much they are holding.
As we reported in January 2018 regarding Massive Russian Silver Hoard
When you review these images Mr. Maloney, along with everyone else that has reported on this story, has overlooked the series of images below. These images show, what appears to be, 1000 ounce bars of silver stacked high and deep. If the packaging is an indication of the contents then all those packages contain as much silver as the Russians have gold – possibly more.
The increase in Russian gold mining production will, once again, raise questions about how much gold Russia is stacking in their central bank vault versus how much they are sending to China. We know they have a gold swap agreement with China and move the gold through the Russian and Chinese banking systems. Now we learn of a 13% surge in mining production. This is not an insignificant amount of gold.
Gold output in Russia increased by 12.6 percent from January through March this year compared with the same period a year ago, according to the country’s ministry of finance.
Production in the first quarter of the current year reportedly totaled 58.12 tons, up from 51.61 tons in 2018.
Production for the period included 45.95 tons of mined gold compared with 39.78 tons a year ago, the ministry reported. Accompanying mining totaled 4.32 tons, marking a 21 percent year-over-year surge, while secondary mining shrank by five percent to 7.85 tons.
At the same time, production of mined silver amounted to 223.28 tons, fixing a decline of 11 percent.
Russia is currently third in the global rating of gold miners after Australia and China. The Russian gold mining sector has nearly doubled its volume of extraction over the last two decades. The world’s largest country accounts for more than 83 percent of the European gold output. Russian miners are reportedly planning to increase gold production to 400 tons by 2030.
The Svetloye mine, operated by Russian precious metals mining corporation Polymetal, is ranked number one among the world’s lowest cost gold mines. The precious metal mined in the field that is located in the country’s Far East cost $425 per ounce as of 2018. Source
We just had an in-depth conversation with Chris Marcus regarding the physical silver market. It may be time to consider, look into and possibly research for yourself if physical silver is right for you. We find the silver story very compelling and believe having a nice stack of silver and gold coins, bars and rounds is the right thing to do. Got physical, close at hand?
