Why Silver Is More Expensive

Once upon a time, there was a cheap metal: silver. But the price of the white metal has also skyrocketed, as has gold over the past year. Of course, silver still costs much less than gold, which has surpassed $3,300 an ounce, or over €90 per gram. But gradually, on the stock market, silver has reached the $40 an ounce mark, its highest price in 14 years. This means that the price of silver jewelry is also set to rise further, perhaps to the psychological threshold of €50, as in 2011. But some argue that the bubble could burst: opinions are uncertain because, from a financial standpoint, the white metal is traded less.

But why is the price of silver rising? One explanation concerns the tariff hike decided by Donald Trump, which is attracting purchases to the United States for fear of increases, thus diverting them from other regions of the world. Trump has not yet imposed tariffs on silver, but in the meantime, the price is rising. It remains to be seen whether the US president will grant exemptions to the 30% tariff he announced he would impose in August on imports from Mexico: the country is responsible for a quarter of the world’s silver mining production. This is also because demand has exceeded supply for five years, according to data from the Silver Institute.

Moreover, the latest silver price increases coincided with the announcement of the 50% tariff on copper. There’s a reason: 70-80% of silver comes from mines where the main metal extracted is another metal. And in many cases, these are copper mines. A halt in copper mining, due to tariffs, would also cause a slowdown in silver production. Finally, the increase has triggered speculation: ETF-type investment funds are buying silver, which ends up in bank vaults. In the first six months of this year, particularly in June, there were net inflows of 95 million ounces of silver through purchases in silver ETFs, more than in all of 2024.