http://www.moneyweek.com/file/28810/why-the-silver-price-is-set-t...

http://www.moneyweek.com/file/28810/why-the-silver-price-is-set-to-soar.html

Mark O'Byrne argues that silver is "the investment opportunity of a lifetime".

Some excerpts from the article:

* "Silver is even more undervalued than gold and is undervalued when compared to other strategic commodities such as oil and uranium."

* "Silver is currently trading at just below $14 per ounce. Gold Investments continue to believe that silver will surpass $20 per ounce in 2007, its non inflation adjusted high of $48.70 per ounce before 2012 and its inflation adjusted high of some $130 per ounce in the next 8 years."

* "In 1900 there were 12 billion oz of silver in the world. By 1990, the internationally respected commodities-research firm CPM Group say that figure had been reduced to around 2.2 billion ounces of silver. Today, that figure has fallen to about 300 million ounces in above ground refined silver. It is estimated that 95% of the silver ever mined has been consumed by the global photography, technology, medical, defence and electronic industries. This silver is gone forever."

* "The supply of silver is inelastic. ... Importantly, silver is a byproduct metal and some 80% of mined silver is a byproduct of base metals. Higher prices for silver will not cause copper, nickel, zinc, lead or other base metal miners to increase their production. ... There are only a handful of pure silver mines remaining."

* " Perhaps the foremost analyst of the silver market today is Mr Theodore Butler. He believes that gold and particularly silver are the laggards in the commodity complex due to price manipulation. At over 300 million ounces, the largest 8 traders on the COMEX are short more silver bullion than exists in total known world inventories, including total SLV holdings and total COMEX inventories. Butler sums it up succinctly, 'If there is one thing that separates silver from any other asset class, or any other item in any asset class, it is the presence of an unprecedented concentrated short position in COMEX silver futures. It is the existence of this concentrated short position that will, at some point, launch the silver price to the heavens. This short position has grown so large, and is held by so few entities, that it no longer matters how it will be resolved. It must be resolved and, whether that resolution involves default or buying by short covering, it will have the same bullish impact on price. You don’t have to look any further than the concentrated COMEX short position as to why silver has not outperformed every other commodity. Just as it explains price under performance, it is telling you why there must be overperformance in the future. At some point, the price of silver must accelerate upward to price levels that are truly shocking.' "

* "Silver is unique in terms of being both a monetary and an industrial metal and having the highest optical reflectivity and the highest thermal and electrical conductivity amongst all metals. Silver industrial and investment demand is increasing very significantly and meanwhile supply is falling. The fact that the huge majority of the investment public and financial services industry remains ignorant of the fundamentals in silver means that the bull market in silver remains in it’s early stages. Silver remains probably the most undervalued asset class."