Page 146 gives data on the silver market in 2012. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDgQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fminerals.usgs.gov%2Fminerals%2Fpubs%2Fmcs%2F2013%2Fmcs2013.pdf&ei=zJohUd_yKobK9gSwyYH4BA&usg=AFQjCNGFgq0hM5FZH6cnAdLejdXoNfEdfA.

The report is not real bullish on the surface, but there are some bullish components. World silver mine production increased about 3% which was an increase of 700 tonnes to 24,000 tonnes. This is an increase of about 23.4 million ounces. An article I wrote several years ago on silver demand was published on Silverseek and in it I concluded that mine production needed to increase 12 million ounces per year to keep up with population growth and modernization. Depending on how you look at it, mine production is either increasing faster than demand, or demand is increasing faster than I thought.

U.S. silver production continued its decline and the U.S. has gone from the worlds number 2 silver produced 11 years ago to number 9 last year. This means that either the U.S. is mined out or regulations and labor costs have made mining here uneconomical even though silver was priced at 4.5/ounce 11 years ago.

The remaining world silver reserves continues to hold at 530,000 tonnes even though 20,000 tonnes is mined every year. For the two countries with the highest silver reserves, Peru and Chile, production was flat in Peru and down in Chile. I own a stock in a Peru miner and this has brought to my attention that grass root public opposition to mines there is becoming a problem. Whether this is the cause of Peru dropping from number 1 in the world production to number 3 I do not know.

While searching for this report I came across the following report. http://www.silverdoctors.com/usgs-overestimating-2012-us-silver-production/. This report shows that Hecla's Green Creek mine is the number one U.S. producer of silver and that the recovered silver ore grade has dropped from 20 ounces per tonne several years ago to 9 ounces per ton as of 2010.