The Gold-Silver Ratio Explained Like Never Before
While there have been countless articles written about the Gold-Silver Ratio, they did not include the information that will be provided in this article. Most of the information or analysis on the gold-silver ratio has been on its “price ratio” and little else.
Unfortunately, price ratios are only a small part of the overall picture. To get a better understanding of the gold-silver ratio, we have to include data that has been overlooked for quite some time. For example, it is important to understand how the metals are produced, as it is a leading indicator of the current price mechanism.
I decided to use statistics from the United States, as it is a good indicator of what is taking place in the rest of the world. Furthermore, the USGS – United States Geological Survey provides excellent data on the gold and silver industry.In addition, I have included statistics for copper, as the king base metal adds more evidence to price ratios of the metals.
According to the USGS, this was the breakdown of U.S. copper, silver and gold production in 2015:
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In 2015, the United States produced 1,125,000 metric tons (mt) of copper, 1,100 mt of silver and 200 mt of gold. Thus, the U.S. produced 1,022 times more copper than silver and 5.5 times more silver than gold. Globally, here are the production ratios for 2015:
Global Copper, Silver & Gold Production Ratios For 2015:
Copper = 18.7 million tons (685 times silver)
Silver = 27,300 metric tons (9 times gold)
Gold = 3,000 metric tons
These figures came from the USGS and are a bit different from the data GFMS puts out in their Gold and Silver Surveys. However, they are a good representation of the different metal’s production ratios. As we can see, the world produces a heck of a lot more copper than silver, and a lot more silver than gold. The notion that the price of gold and silver should be based upon their production ratio of 9 to 1, is not currently true as the price ratio is 69 to 1… nearly eight times higher.
Now, one important factor in determining the current gold-silver ratio (and copper) is how it is produced. Again, many articles continue to state that the gold-silver price ratio should be closer to their annual production ratio. However, this does not include a very important factor… the production ratio per worker:
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I converted the metric ton figures in the first chart to ounces or troy ounces and divided them by the total number of workers for each metal. Each copper worker produced 3,173,000 ounces of copper compared to 47,100 oz for silver and 585 oz for gold. Thus, each worker produced 67 times more copper than silver and 80 times more silver than gold.
Here are the figures for the U.S. copper, silver & gold industry in 2015:
Copper = 11,400 workers
Gold = 11,000 workers
Silver = 750 workers
While it is true that not all gold and silver production comes from primary gold and silver mines, this still provides us a good ratio of the amount of metal produced by each worker.
Now, if we look at the price ratios of each metal in 2015, we can spot an interesting correlation:
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The average spot price of gold in 2015 was $1,166 compared to $15.68 for silver and $0.21 an ounce for copper. Thus, silver was 75 times more expensive than copper and gold was 74 times more expensive than silver. If we compare these price ratios to the production per worker ratios, there is an interesting parallel.
Gold, Silver & Copper Ratios 2015:
Gold Price 74 times higher than silver versus silver production 80 times higher
Silver Price 75 times higher than copper versus copper production 67 times higher
While these ratios don’t match up exactly, we can plainly see that the amount of metal produced by each worker corresponds to their price ratios. Furthermore, I have stated that gold and silver are being priced based on their cost of production, rather their production ratio extracted from the ground.
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In 2000, the cost of gold production at the top two miners (Barrick & Newmont) was $243 an ounce versus the average gold spot price of $279.In comparison, the top two gold miners cost of production increased to $1,116 an ounce in 2015, versus the average spot price of $1,160. Thus, the average gold price in 2015 was only 3.8% higher than Barrick and Newmont’s average cost of production.
So, the market is currently valuing gold, silver and copper based on their cost of production, not the ratio of the metal being extracted from the earth. While many analysts continue to claim that silver is undervalued due to its 9 to 1 production ratio to gold, they do not consider the way these metals are being extracted compared to historical times.
For most of history, gold and silver were extracted from the earth using human and animal labor. However, since the late 1800’s, coal and then oil became the leading energy sources used for extracting metals such as gold, silver and copper. The chart below shows the amount of fuel consumed by Barrick versus Pan American Silver to produce an ounce of gold and silver:
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The first chart shows Barrick consumed 32 gallons of fuel to produce an ounce of gold versus 0.80 gallon of fuel for Pan American’s total silver production.However, this included some silver-gold open-pit mines. If we consider just Pan American Silver’s primary silver production, it only consumed 0.20 gallon of fuel to produce an ounce of silver.If we average the two, we end up with approximately 0.50 gallons to produce an ounce of silver versus 32 gallons for an ounce of gold produced by Barrick gold.This is about a 64 to 1 ratio of fuel consumption per ounce of gold versus silver produced.
Yes, these are just approximations, but it still provides us more data on the valuation of the gold and silver price.We must remember, there are a lot of energy slaves continued in a barrel of oil.I mentioned this in a previous article, but it is relevant again.
The United States consumed about 19 million barrels a day of oil in 2015.There approximately 23,000 man hours worth of work in a barrel of oil. Thus, daily U.S. oil consumption in 2015 equaled the 54.6 billion people working an eight-hour day. That’s a lot of energy slaves.
It has been due to the introduction of a tremendous amount of oil energy slaves that has distorted historic gold-silver ratio of 15/1 of the past.When gold and silver were extracted via human and animal labor, only the highest ore grades and veins were extracted for the most part.Which means, the price of gold and silver were valued based upon their extraction from the ground.
When oil came on the scene, it became feasible to mine lower and lower quality ores that were impossible or uneconomic to do by human or animal labor. Again, this destroyed the historic 15/1 gold and silver ratio.
CRITICAL FACTOR:Gold & Silver Are Not Just Mere Commodities
The market today has totally dismissed gold and silver as money.Instead they value them as mere commodities, based on the cost of production and some supply and demand forces.Years ago, I had to laugh when I read a few articles stating that the gold price was weak due to falling demand in the dental industry…. LOL.
While gold and silver are consumed in industry (more silver), they still behave as STORES OF WEALTH or MONEY.Even though the market is currently valuing gold and silver as mere commodities, they will once again become high quality stores of wealth.
This is all due to the coming Thermodynamic Oil Collapse which is now being shown by the financial results in the Major Oil Industry.The top three U.S. oil companies used to be extremely profitable.. not any more.The combined Free Cash Flow from ExxonMobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips has fallen from $46.3 billion in 2011 to a negative $7.3 billion in 2016.However, their free cash flow would have been much worse if they didn’t cut $20 billion from their capital expenditures last year:
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The U.S. and global oil industry is in big trouble. Without continued cheap and abundant energy supplies, the global economy disintegrates. With the disintegration of the global economy, comes with it, the collapse in value of most STOCKS, BONDS & REAL ESTATE. Unfortunately, these are the assets that 99% of investors in the world have parked their money.
The current gold-silver ratio is being valued based on their cost of production. The production of metal per worker is also a large factor in determining the current gold, silver and copper price. However, copper is predominately used today as an industrial metal, while a large percentage of gold and silver mine supply continues to be acquired by individuals as an INVESTMENT.
Disclosure: None.