The Turd came up with two possible explanations for this sudden drop (see below). My take is that this is just another paper raid to help the shorts cover short positions in the mining shares. Several of the big silver miners are in the green in spite of silver being 50 cents lower.

"A source of mine (not AM) just told me that one of his "sources on the floor" informed him that the reason for the selloff in the metals is a rumor that the SwissNationalBank is heavily underwater in yen and is being forced to sell gold to raise margin cash.

I ran this past AM and he hasn't heard this at all. He thought it was a selloff on the statements of FedGoon Plosser: http://www.forexlive.com/blog/2013/01/11/feds-plosser-says-hes-not-a-big-fan-of-qe"

http://www.tfmetalsreport.com/blog/4430/guest-post-value-silver-miningstockvaluatorcom