Silver as a Safe Haven Investment

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• Apogee Silver Ltd.
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• Bravada Gold Corporation
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• CMC Metals Ltd.
• Cream Minerals
• Critical Elements
• ElTigre Silver Corp.
• Excalibur Resources
• Golden Alliance Resources
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• New Nadina
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• Tarsis Resources
• Trevali Mining Corp
• White Tiger Mining Corp.
• Xtierra Inc.
• Yellowhead Mining

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Featured Silver Companies

• Apogee Silver – Exploring silver mining regions in South America
• Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. – Precious and Base Metals in Mexico and Canada
• Avrupa Minerals – Seven Mining Projects Throughout Portugal and Kosovo
• Bravada Gold Corporation – Gold Exploration and Development in Nevada
• Bravo Gold Corp. – Gold Exploration in British Columbia
• CMC Metals – Silver Hart Property, high grade silver mineralization
• Cream Minerals – Nuevo Milenio Silver-Gold Project
• Critical Elements Corp. – Future Energy
• El Tigre Silver Corp. – Focused on Silver Exploration in Sierra El Tigre, Mexico
• Excalibur Resources – VMS project in Ontario, Historic property in BC
• Golden Alliance – Focused on Gold and Copper Exploration in Peru
• Kootenay Gold Inc: Discovery, Growth And Vast Opportunity
• New Nadina Explorations – Exploring for Silver and Diamonds in Canada
• NQ Exploration Inc. – A Significant Player on the Quebec and Canadian Mining Scene
• Source Exploration Corp. – Exploring for Gold and Silver in Mexico
• South American Silver Corp – Significant Silver-Indium Deposits in Bolivia
• Southern Silver Exploration Corp.- A Precious and Base Metal Exploration Company
• Tarsis Resources – Silver, Gold, Zinc exploration in the Yukon and Mexico
• Trevali Mining Corp. – North and South American Silver-Lead-Zinc Deposits
• White Tiger Mining Corp – Northern Ontario Mining Projects
• Xtierra Inc. – Developing Mexican Silver-Zinc Production
• Yellowhead Mining Inc. – Focused on Harper Creek Copper-Gold-Silver Advanced Exploration Project

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Silver as a Safe Haven Investment
By Damon van der Linde – Exclusive to Silver Investing News
As investors look for save havens in precious metals amidst fears of currency inflation across the globe, a bullish outlook is projected for silver as a more affordable alternative to gold, though some analysts warn that even if they have been following similar recent price trends, the two metals should be viewed as unique and separate assets.
“Gold is money, and silver isn’t. It kind of has a mind of its own.” said Richard Briggs, a Senior Market Strategist at Lind-Waldock Canada. “Silver should have a good future, but it certainly is more volatile. So if you’re an aggressive trader, you might prefer silver.”
Gold is used by private investors, institutions and even governments as a hedge against potential currency inflation, and the yellow metal has been garnering much attention for this quality surrounding the ongoing debt ceiling impasse in the United States, the euro zone’s ongoing financial crises and worries about the Chinese rise in inflation. The central banks of the US, Italy, and even the International Monetary Fund have huge stores of gold in their vaults for such a purpose, while none of them stock silver bullion as an investment.
Silver has long been associated with gold, and for hundreds of years more or less maintained a ratio of 15.5 to 1 as a bimetallic standard. Today, the silver to gold ratio is around 41 to 1, and this obviously fluctuates widely depending on market activity.
“Bimetallism died about a hundred years ago or more,” says Briggs. “There’s a correlation between gold and silver because people to a certain extent perceive silver as a precious metal. A lot of people believe in it and a lot of people think it’s under-priced.”
According to The Silver Institute, more than 95 percent of annual silver consumption emanates from industrial and decorative uses, photography, and jewellery & silverware, leaving around five percent of total use as store value, depending on whether jewellery is considered an investment. Compare this with gold, where about 60 percent of use comes from jewellery, 30 percent as an investment and around 10 percent for technological and industrial applications.
“Silver is theoretically an industrial metal and its claim as a precious metal is not that concrete,” says Briggs. “You’d think it would be less volatile, but as long as I can remember silver has been significantly more volatile than gold. It’s just the nature of the marketplace.”
Briggs says that he believes the largest factor for today’s differences in the gold and silver market has to do with who are the players doing the bulk of the investing in the respective metals. He says that silver’s lower value appeals more to investors looking to make money on the short term, because the fluctuations are more conducive to quick buying and selling.
“The people who trade silver tend to be more active, and more aggressive,” he says. “The people taking concrete steps for the longer term are typically in gold. I’m sure there are a lot of people who have put silver aside for the longer term, but compared with gold there’s a lot of fast money in silver.”
Disclosure: I, Damon van der Linde, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.