Where Silver Comes From
Most mined silver comes from Latin America.
Mexico is by far the largest supplier, producing 178.1 million ounces in 2020. Peru is next, with 109.7 million ounces of production, followed closely by China, whose output was 108.6 million ounces. The next group contributes less than 50 million ounces annually, with Chile, Australia, Russia, Poland, the U.S., Bolivia and Argentina producing between 23 million and 47 million ounces each.
What’s striking about the silver supply from mining is how rapidly it’s been falling. Since 2016, the top ten silver-producing countries have all seen their output drop, without exception. In fact, it’s been a marked and sustained decrease for five consecutive years.
This is why I suggest that we may have reached ‘peak silver’ mine supply. Will we ever surpass 2016 output? Only time will say for certain.
Mine production topped out just shy of 900 million ounces, at 899.4 million, in 2016, according to the Silver Institute. By 2020, it had dropped by 12.8% to 784.4 million ounces. In 2020 alone, silver mines produced 6% less than in 2019, but to be fair, a good portion of that decrease was related to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
I do know that with
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