Steve St. Angelo
SRSrocco Report / SilverSeek
There is an insidious dark side to the silver mining industry that goes unnoticed by the majority of investors and analysts. Actually, I haven’t come across one mining analyst who puts out comprehensive data on this very subject for the silver mining industry.
According to my figures for 2013, the top primary silver miners suffered the lowest average silver yield ever. That’s correct — another year of declining ore grades and yields.
Looking at the chart below, the top 6 primary silver miners average yield for 2013 was 7.6 ounce a tonne (oz/t) compared to the 8.1 oz/t recorded in 2012. Thus, the top miners shed another half ounce of silver yield — falling 6% in 2013.