Silver
LBMA / COMEX
Half money, half machine part: the metal that lost photography and found the sun.
Top Producers
share of 2025 mine production
Top Consumers
share of 2025 fabrication demand
Main Uses
share of 2024 demand by end use (Silver Institute); industrial includes solar PV and electronics
Top Exporters
share among silver bullion exporters by 2024 export value (UN Comtrade); London and Hong Kong are clearing and re-export hubs, Mexico the largest mine-backed shipper
Top Importers
share among silver bullion importers by 2024 import value (UN Comtrade); the US and India anchor end demand, with India's swings driving the global balance
Annual mine production
roughly 25,000 tonnes (roughly 820 million ounces)
as of 2024
Photovoltaic demand
roughly 190 to 200 million ounces
as of 2024
Market balance
structural deficit every year since 2021
as of 2025
Gold-silver ratio
roughly 60 to 65
as of June 2026
Price
roughly $65 per troy ounce; record above $120 set on January 29, 2026
as of June 2026
Silver is gold's volatile sibling: monetary enough to track gold, industrial enough to trade like a base metal, and small enough that flows which would barely move gold can move silver violently. Annual supply is roughly 1 billion troy ounces, roughly 31,000 tonnes counting recycling, and most of it comes out of the ground as a by-product of lead, zinc, copper, and gold mines. By-product economics make supply stubbornly price-inelastic: a silver rally does not make a Mexican zinc miner dig faster. Mexico is the largest producer at roughly 6,300 tonnes per year, followed by China and Peru. The market's plumbing mirrors gold: loco London unallocated accounts, an LBMA Silver Price auction at noon London time, and the COMEX 5,000-ounce SI future in New York.
The demand story of the past two decades is a death and a resurrection. Photographic film, which consumed well over 200 million ounces a year around 2000, collapsed with digital cameras to a residual sliver. Photovoltaics replaced it and then some: every solar panel carries silver paste on its cells, and the solar build-out consumed roughly 190 to 200 million ounces in 2024, roughly a fifth of total demand and rising with each new gigawatt. Add electronics, electric vehicle wiring, and brazing alloys, and industrial uses now take well over half of annual supply. The Silver Institute's consensus shows the market in a structural supply deficit every year since 2021, drawing down the above-ground inventories held in London and COMEX vaults.
Silver's speculative history is the stuff of legend. Nelson Bunker Hunt and his brothers accumulated futures and physical silver through 1979, drove the price to $50 per ounce in January 1980, and were broken on March 27, 1980, Silver Thursday, when margin calls they could not meet nearly took a brokerage house down with them. The metal touched $49 again in April 2011 and was the target of the Reddit-driven silver squeeze of February 2021. The 45-year-old record finally fell on October 9, 2025, when silver broke above $50 for the first time since 1980; a physical squeeze that drained London and COMEX vaults and sent lease rates spiking then drove the price above $120 in late January 2026, before it settled back into the mid-$60s by June 2026.
How It Trades
| Venue | OTC loco London (LBMA) for spot and forwards; COMEX (CME Group) for futures and options |
| Benchmark contract | COMEX Silver Futures (SI); LBMA Silver Price auction as the OTC reference |
| Contract size | 5,000 troy ounces |
| Price terms | USD per troy ounce |
| Settlement | SI is physically delivered into COMEX-licensed depositories; OTC trades settle loco London over unallocated accounts; the LBMA Silver Price auction prints at 12:00 noon London time |
| Typical curve | Contango from cost of carry, like gold but with higher storage cost per dollar of value because silver is roughly 60 to 90 times cheaper per ounce; squeezes flatten the curve quickly |
| Liquidity | Deep but a fraction of gold: COMEX SI typically trades 70,000 to 100,000 contracts per day, and the spot market gaps harder than gold in both directions |
Where It Trades
approximate share of global daily traded volume across futures and OTC, 2025; the OTC split is an estimate from LBMA clearing statistics rather than reported turnover
Supply and Demand
Top producers
- Mexico: roughly 6,300 tonnes per year, the largest producer for over a decade
- China: roughly 3,400 tonnes per year
- Peru: roughly 3,100 tonnes per year
- Chile, Poland, Australia, Bolivia, and Russia: roughly 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes each
- Recycling: roughly 5,500 to 6,000 tonnes per year
Roughly 70 percent of mine supply is by-product of lead-zinc, copper, and gold operations, so silver output responds to base metal economics more than to the silver price. Primary silver mines are a shrinking minority of supply.
Top consumers
- China: the largest fabricator, dominant in photovoltaics and electronics
- India: the largest jewellery, silverware, and physical investment market, with imports that swing the global balance
- United States: electronics, brazing, coin, and ETF demand
- Japan: electronics and photovoltaic materials
Major uses
- Industrial, led by photovoltaics and electronics: roughly 55 to 60 percent of demand
- Photovoltaics alone: roughly 20 percent and the fastest-growing segment
- Jewellery and silverware: roughly 20 percent
- Bars, coins, and ETFs: roughly 15 to 20 percent, highly variable year to year
The Silver Institute has reported a structural market deficit every year since 2021, met by drawing down London and COMEX vault inventories.
What Moves the Price
- The gold price: silver rarely sustains a move against it, and the gold-silver ratio (roughly 80 to 90 through mid-2025, compressed toward 60 by the late-2025 silver run) is the market's favorite relative-value gauge
- Photovoltaic installation rates and silver loading per cell, the marginal industrial demand driver
- Real interest rates and the dollar, via the monetary channel
- By-product mine supply, which tracks zinc, lead, and copper economics rather than the silver price
- Indian physical imports, which swing by thousands of tonnes year to year
- ETF and retail coin flows, including episodic squeezes like February 2021
- Vault inventory levels in London and New York, the visible buffer against the structural deficit
Moments That Made the Market
1873
The US Coinage Act demonetizes silver, ending bimetallism; agitation to reverse it dominates American politics for a generation
1980
The Hunt brothers' corner drives silver to $50 in January; the corner breaks on Silver Thursday, March 27, when margin calls overwhelm them
2006
The first silver ETF launches, opening the metal to portfolio investors at scale
2011
Silver touches $49 in April, then loses a third of its value in two weeks
2014
The 117-year-old London silver fix ends in August, replaced by the electronic LBMA Silver Price auction
2021
A Reddit-coordinated squeeze attempt in February briefly sends silver above $30 and empties retail coin dealers; the market deficit era begins the same year
2024
Photovoltaic demand reaches roughly 200 million ounces, completing the replacement of dead photographic demand; silver breaks above $34 in October
2025
Silver breaks above $50 on October 9, taking out the Hunt-era nominal record after 45 years as tariff fears and the structural deficit drain vault inventories
2026
A physical squeeze in London and New York drives silver to a record above $120 on January 29, with lease rates spiking; the price settles back into the $60s by mid-year
What Changed Since the 2010 Handbook Era
- Photography, two-thirds of industrial demand in the late 1990s, is essentially gone; photovoltaics replaced it and now consume roughly a fifth of all silver
- The market flipped from the persistent surpluses of the 2000s to structural deficits every year since 2021
- The London silver fix died in August 2014 amid the benchmark scandals; an electronic auction prices the metal now
- ETFs and retail platforms turned silver investment from coin shops into an instant, internet-coordinated flow, as February 2021 demonstrated
- Mexico displaced Peru as the dominant producer, and by-product supply tied silver output to base metal mines more tightly than ever
- The 1980 nominal record, untouched for 45 years, finally fell on October 9, 2025; the squeeze that followed carried silver above $120 in late January 2026