the audio from the silver summit is now available at:

www.kereport.com

the most interesting point brought out is that the supply of silver is static regardless of whether the price and demand are going up and down. the reason is that some 70% of silver is produced as a byproduct of base metal (lead, zinc) or gold mines.

if bhp is operating a primary copper mine, they don't care whether silver is selling for $1/oz or $100/oz. they will produce the same amount of copper (and silver) regardless. but the primary silver mines that produce the remaining 30% are another story.

if silver should approach $50/oz then primary silver supply will go down, not up. the reason is that the primary veins will produce their lowest grade rock. rock that used to be waste is now ore at higher prices. if and when the price drops, they can go back to mining high grade ore. but when prices go up, they take advantage by mining the lowest grades, and silver production declines.

so higher silver prices will not bring out more supply; instead the opposite will occur. higher prices will lead to even higher prices.