High Prices Can Be the Cure. Manic Metals Report 01/27/2026

Massive historic moves in silver and to a lesser extent gold has the market wondering whether that historic reversal in prices on silver was just a correction or signs of a major top. One of my clients said he believed the top was coming because he sat down at lunch and three ladies at his table just happened to tell him that they were selling their silver service sets for big money in other words the high prices could encourage more supply to come online that could alleviate the massive shortages, My client said that now with prices where they’re at supply will come out of the woodwork and we’ll find out we had supply we didn’t even know it existed .

In fact, today in the Wall Street Journal, they wrote that South Africa’s first new underground gold mine in over 15 years, Qala Shallows, began production in October, driven by gold prices that have more than doubled in two years. The Qala Shallows project, backed by about $100 million investment, is estimated to produce over $4 billion of gold and has a relatively low break-even point of $1,291 per ounce. Global gold exploration budgets increased 11% to $6.15 billion in 2025, with major miners expanding operations and South Africa’s struggling sector seeing renewed interest.

And while we’re starting to see signs that these high prices will bring on more supply, the fact of the matter is that we’re going to need it very quickly—and not just in the short term, but for the long term. There’s no doubt about it: the drive for physical metals is strong, mainly because of artificial intelligence, the rebuilding of the energy infrastructure, and the fact that it has been undervalued for many years. As I’ve mentioned before, silver has been controlled by big banks for years, and now, with this tightness of supply, they’ve lost control and the market is free to move without the restrictions of big banks selling.

This has enabled real price discovery and is realigning the silver market with its traditional value relative to other precious and industrial metals.

High Prices are also inspiring more technology. The FT  reported that  “Copper miners are turning to vast waste piles, novel extraction technologies and even bacterial “bugs” to increase production of the critical mineral that has surged in price.    The FT Says that BHP, Rio Tinto, Freeport-McMoRan and Vale Base Metals are among those researching and deploying new techniques to recover metal from old and disused sites, or from material previously viewed as too difficult to use.  They quote  Vicky Peacey, president of the giant Resolution mine being developed by Rio and BHP in Arizona, said extracting the once unrecoverable copper stored in giant waste mounds was the industry’s “holy grail”, while mining group VBM described it as “the next frontier”.

The interest in waste comes as miners race to grow their copper businesses in the context of record prices of more than $13,000 per ton, which have prompted some of the world’s biggest miners to pursue mergers.   Rio Tinto and Glencore this month confirmed they had resumed talks over a potential deal to create the world’s largest mining company, while Anglo American and Teck Resources agreed a $60bn combination last year.

In Arizona, BHP is also looking into whether it can extract copper from tens of thousands of tonnes of waste material stacked in mountainous layers. That could allow old sites to become “an important additional source of copper as demand soars and supply dwindles”, said BHP chief technical officer Johan van Jaarsveld.

Of course, for a commodity trader, these are the best of times, and while the risk is higher than it’s probably ever been in the silver market, the opportunities on the flip side are just as big. With massive moves in commodities over short periods of time, it allows some sophisticated traders to make an awful lot of money in a very short period—call it the gold rush or the silver rush or whatever you want to call it, there are fortunes being made or lost almost in a matter of minutes.

Currently, commodity traders face both high risks and significant opportunities in the silver market. Rapid price fluctuations enable experienced traders to quickly earn or lose large sums, making fortunes possible within minutes.

Analyst OLE Hansen say that to really understand the difference between the price of silver in China and London, you have to factor in China’s 13% value-added tax (VAT), which is charged when silver is physically delivered. If you take that tax out of the equation, the price difference (or “premium”) in China hit just over 5% yesterday but dropped closer to 1% today. The 13% VAT isn’t new—it’s been in place since 2019—but since it’s a percentage of the silver’s price, it makes the gap between Chinese and London silver prices look bigger, especially as silver prices rise.

Make sure you sign up for the Phil Flynn daily trade levels and get ready to take advantage of the historic moves and metals you can also get the daily fill clean energy report and at the same time make sure you stay tuned to the Fox Business Network because they’re the only network in America that is truly invested in you just call me today at 888-264-5665 or e-mail me at pflynn@pricegroup.com.