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Andean Silver Limited (ASX: ASL) (“Andean” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it continues to grow the pipeline of strong exploration targets at its Cerro Bayo Project in Southern Chile, with geophysics identifying another large prospect at the Sinter Hill location.
- Presence of large Sinter Cap at Cerro Bayo indicates potential for an intact epithermal system and corresponding potential for silver and gold mineralisation
- Geophysics survey has supported potential presence of an extended mineralised system, defining over a dozen structural targets extending north from Sinter Hill with many of these corresponding to known surface veins
- New north-south trending structures also identified that demonstrate mineralisation potential over 2km of strike length
- The geophysical results link the target zone at Sinter Hill to the known outcropping veins of Aguila and Meseta with a 2km strike, under shallow cover and previously unexplored
- Only 15% of the Sinter Hill geophysics program completed with key targets of the Cascada trend and south of Sinter Hill yet to be surveyed
- Initial results from Sinter Hill and Pampa La Pera (see ASX release dated 13 February 2025) geophysics programs point to more large-scale targets under shallow cover
- Resource update remains on track for end of this month
Andean Chief Executive Tim Laneyrie said: “The geophysics program continues to show the huge exploration upside at the Cerro Bayo Project. We are rapidly developing a pipeline of strong targets to guide future drill programs and have three rigs currently working on the near mine Laguna Verde resource growth.
“The Sinter Hill feature forms a significant part of the upside potential that Andean saw in the Cerro Bayo Project and we are very excited by the initial results we have seen in the geophysical survey. It has validated the investment to date, and we look forward to seeing the area drilled in the next phase of greenfield exploration drilling.
“The imminent resource update will include Andean’s drilling results for the first time, including the Cristal and Pegaso 7 discoveries announced in 2024.
“The scale of the Cerro Bayo Project continues to grow with every mapping, drilling and geophysics campaign we have completed, which underpins our belief that Cerro Bayo has the potential to be a globally significant silver-gold asset”.
Sinter Hill Prospect
The Sinter Hill prospect is located in the southeast of the Cerro Bayo Project at an elevation of ~1,250mRL, approximately 2.5km south of known mineralisation at the Cascada Vein which sits at an elevation of approximately 850mRL and historically produced 4.23Moz AgEq from 2006-20081 (Figure 1).
The prospect is so-called due to the presence of a geological feature known as a ‘sinter cap’ (Figure 4), which refers to a paleo-surface layer of silica-rich rock formed at the discharge point of a hot spring in an epithermal system, essentially acting as a cap over an underlying mineralised zone. Sinter caps are classic indicators of the presence of an epithermal system due to their direct association with the rising hot, mineral-laden fluids that create the sinter through precipitation as they cool at surface.
An intact epithermal system indicates a high potential for valuable mineral deposits, particularly gold and silver, as the entire process of hydrothermal fluid circulation and mineral precipitation remains undisturbed, preserving the full concentration of precious metals within the system and leading to higher grade deposits.
Sinter Hill therefore represents a high priority prospect for exploration by Andean and the aim of the latest geophysics survey has been to identify potential intact epithermal mineralised zones below and/or extensive vein networks radiating from the Sinter Hill area. The zones identified will form the basis of future exploration and drilling programs, targeting potential significant scale discoveries of high-grade mineralisation which would expand the total resources at the Cerro Bayo Project.
Figure 1. Location of Sinter Hill prospect and Cascada historic underground mine in relation to Cerro Bayo and Laguna Verde silver districts of the Cerro Bayo Project.
Results of Geophysical Survey
The latest phase of the geophysical survey covered broad spaced lines (400m spacing) over the central zone of the northern mapped Aguila and Meseta veins through to the Sinter outcrop (Figures 2 and 3), with only 15% of the Sinter Hill portion of the program completed to date. Key targets at the Cascada trend and the zone to the south of Sinter Hill have yet to be surveyed.
Significant findings from the latest survey results:
- New north-south trending structures that demonstrate mineralisation potential identified by a coincident enhanced resistivity and chargeability high extending over 2km (Figures 3 and 4) of north-south striking veins at an elevation similar to the known Cascada deposit;
- Over a dozen structural targets defined extending north from Sinter Hill, with multiple subparallel enhanced resistivity anomalies stacked along the northern ridge representing both known and unknown veins (Figures 2, 3 and 4); and
- The expression of the eruption breccias at Sinter Hill at surface appears to expand at depth suggesting it is part of a larger, deeper system (shown in C to C’ in Figures 3 and 4).
Previous geophysics survey results by Andean at Cerro Bayo highlighted the effectiveness of the geophysical technique to map out zones of enhanced resistivity and chargeability, which correlate with known outcropping and buried vein trends (refer ASX release dated 13 February 2025). The results identified potential depth extensions to known mineralisation at the Raul prospect and Cerro Bayo resource area, and a new target under shallow cover at the Pampa La Pera area to the west and sub- parallel of the Claudia area.
Click here for the full ASX Release
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Analyst Report: Locksley’s US Strategy Strengthens Critical Minerals Position
The company signed a binding research agreement with Rice University to develop green antimony processing and energy storage technologies, and engaged Washington-based advisory firm GreenMet to advance its Mojave critical minerals project into US federal programs.
Key Report Highlights
- Rice University partnership: For investors, the Rice partnership addresses a structural gap: the absence of US antimony processing capacity. With Locksley committing US$550,000 over 12 months, the collaboration is designed to generate jointly owned intellectual property in both environmentally friendly processing and advanced battery applications. This gives the company a potential first-mover advantage in establishing a sovereign supply of antimony, a metal critical to defense and energy technologies.
- GreenMet engagement: GreenMet’s mandate is equally significant for shareholders. By positioning Mojave within the Defence Production Act and Department of Energy initiatives, Locksley could gain access to grants, loans and offtake agreements.
- Near-term catalysts: Peak Asset Management notes the near-term catalysts include maiden drilling results in September and over US$1 billion in US federal critical minerals funding rounds expected later this year. Combined with favorable market dynamics – antimony prices around US$60,000/t and forecast deficits in rare earths like neodymium-praseodymium – Locksley’s dual strategy offers investors exposure to a tightly supplied market with strong policy tailwinds.
- Investor implications: For shareholders, these moves substantially de-risk Locksley’s downstream strategy. Access to non-dilutive US funding reduces the likelihood of equity dilution, preserving shareholder value. The absence of domestic antimony production in the US creates a first-mover advantage for Mojave, while alignment with US defense and energy policy priorities enhances the project’s strategic profile. At the same time, exposure to high antimony prices and looming rare earth supply deficits offers leverage to favorable commodity markets.
For the full analyst report, click here.
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What Was the Highest Price for Silver?
In this article
How is silver traded?
Before discovering what the highest silver price was, it’s worth looking at how the precious metal is traded. Knowing the mechanics can be useful in understanding why and how its price changes on a day-to-day basis and beyond.
Put simply, silver bullion is traded in dollars and cents per ounce, with market activity taking place worldwide at all hours, resulting in a live silver price. Key commodities markets like New York, London and Hong Kong are just a few locations where investors trade the metal. London is seen as the center of physical silver trade, while the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, called the NYMEX, is where most paper trading is done.
There are two popular ways to invest in silver. The first is through purchasing silver bullion products such as bullion bars, bullion coins and silver rounds. Physical silver is sold on the spot market, meaning that in order to invest in silver this way, buyers pay a specific price for the metal — the silver price per ounce — and then have it delivered immediately.
The second is accomplished through paper trading, which is done via the silver futures market, with participants entering into futures contracts for the delivery of silver at an agreed-upon price and time. In such contracts, two positions can be taken: a long position to accept delivery of the metal or a short position to provide delivery.
Paper trading might sound like a strange way to get silver exposure, but it can provide investors with flexibility that they wouldn’t get from buying and selling bullion. The most obvious advantage is perhaps the fact that trading in the paper market means silver investors can benefit long term from holding silver without needing to store it. Furthermore, futures trading can offer more financial leverage in that it requires less capital than trading in the physical market.
Market participants can also invest in silver through exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Investing in a silver ETF is similar to trading a stock on an exchange, and there are several silver ETFs to choose from. Some ETFs focus on physical silver bullion, while others focus on silver futures contracts. Still others focus on the silver stocks or follow the live silver price.
What is silver's all-time high price?
The silver all-time high was US$49.95 per ounce, a level it reached on January 17, 1980.
However, the price didn’t exactly reach that level by honest means. As Britannica explains, two wealthy traders called the Hunt brothers attempted to corner the market by buying not only physical silver, but also silver futures — they took delivery of those silver futures contracts instead of taking legal tender in the form cash settlements.
Their exploits ultimately ended in disaster: On March 27, 1980, they missed a margin call and the silver market price plunged to US$10.80. This day is infamously known as Silver Thursday.
That record silver price wouldn’t be tested again until April 2011, when it reached US$47.94. This was more than triple the 2009 average silver price of US$14.67, with the price uptick coming on the back of very strong investment demand.
Silver's recent price history
After its 2011 peak, silver's price pulled back over the following years before settling between US$15 and US$20 for much of the second half of last decade. An upward trend in the silver price started in mid-2020, when it was spurred on by the economic uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The price of silver breached the key US$26 level in early August 2020, and soon after tested US$30. However, it failed to make substantial progress past that.
Silver price chart, September 2, 2005, to September 2, 2025.
Chart via SilverPrice.org.
In the spring of 2023, the silver price surged by 30 percent, briefly rising above US$26 in early May; however, the precious metal cratered back down to US$20.90 in early October. Later that month, silver advanced toward the US$23 level on the back of safe-haven demand due to the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
Following remarks from US Federal Rerserve Chair Jerome Powell, speculation about interest rate reductions sent the price of silver to US$25.48 on November 30, its highest point for the fourth quarter.
After starting 2024 on a low note, the white metal saw gains in March on rising Fed rate cut expectations. The resulting upward momentum led silver to reach a Q1 high of US$25.62 on March 20 before breaking through the US$30 mark on May 17. The silver price reached a then 12 year high of US$32.33 on May 20. In Q3, the metal's price slid down below the US$27 mark to as low as US$26.64 by August 7 alongside its industrial cousin copper.
Heading into Q4 2024, silver reversed course to the upside, tracking the record breaking moves in the gold price. Silver once again breached the US$30 level on September 13 and continued higher. On October 21, the silver price moved as high as US$34.20 during the trading day, up more than 48 percent since the start of the year and its highest level in 12 years. However, silver spent the rest of the year in decline, bottoming out at US$28.94 on December 30.
Silver price in 2025
The silver price experienced a momentum shift at the start of 2025, breaking through the US$30 barrier as early as January 5, and reached US$31.31 by January 29. The metal continued to post gains through much of February and March, climbing to US$32.94 on February 20 and then peaking at its quarterly high of US$34.21 on March 28.
Silver price chart, September 2, 2024, to September 2, 2025.
Chart via Silverprice.org.
Following US President Donald Trump's tariff announcements on April 2, silver slumped to below US$30. While the Trump administration’s tariff policies have been largely beneficial for safe-haven assets like precious metals, there were concerns that the threat of tariffs could weaken industrial demand, which could cool price gains in the silver market.
Yet those concerns were pushed to the back burner as recent economic and geopolitical events have raised analysts’ expectations of a September rate cut by the Fed. The benchmark rate has not changed since November 2024.
On June 5, the silver price rose to a 13 year high of US$36.05 in early morning trading, before retreating toward the US$35.50 mark. By June 16, the white metal had broken through the US$37 mark for the first time since May 2011.
In July, increasing geopolitical strife in the Middle East and Russia-Ukraine coupled with a positive outlook for China’s solar power industry proved price positive for both silver’s precious metals and industrial angles.
The silver price overtook the US$39 level to reach US$39.24 on July 22.
These same forces, coupled with the nearly unanimous rate cut expectations, launched the price of silver to over US$40 on August 31 for the first time since 2011, and by September 3 it had climbed as high as US$41.45.
Silver supply and demand dynamics
Market watchers are curious as to whether the silver price will continue its upward trajectory in 2025. Only time will tell, and it will depend on the white metal's ability to remain above the critical US$30 level.
Like other metals, the silver spot price is most heavily influenced by supply and demand dynamics. However, as the information above illustrates, the silver price can be highly volatile. That's partially due to the fact that the metal is subject to both investment and industrial metal demand within global markets.
In other words, it’s bought by investors who want it as a store of wealth, as well as by manufacturers looking to use it for different applications that are incredibly varied. For example, silver has diverse technological applications and is used in devices like batteries and catalysts, but it’s also used in medicine and in the automotive industry.
In terms of supply, the world’s three top producers of the metal are Mexico, China and Peru. Even in those countries silver is usually a by-product — for instance, a mine producing primarily gold or lead might also have silver output.
The Silver Institute's latest World Silver Survey, put together by Metals Focus, outlines a 0.9 percent increase in global mine production to 819.7 million ounces in 2024. This was in partly the result of a return to operations at Newmont's (TSX:NGT,NYSE:NEM,ASX:NEM) Peñasquito mine in Mexico following a suspension of activity brought about by strike action among workers and improved recoveries out of Fresnillo (LSE:FRES,OTC Pink:FNLPF) and MAG Silver's (TSX:MAG,NYSEAMERICAN:MAG) Juanicipio. Silver output also increased in Australia, Bolivia and the US.
The firm is forecasting a 1.9 percent rise in global silver mine production to 823 million ounces in 2025. Much of that growth is expected to come out of Mexico, and it is also projecting output will rise in Chile and Russia.
Lower production from Australia and Peru will offset some of these gains.
Looking at demand, Metals Focus sees growth in 2025 flatlining as industrial fabrication takes a hit from the global tariff war. This could be tempered by an anticipated rebound in demand from physical investment in silver bars and coins.
The silver market is expected to experience a substantial deficit of 117.6 million ounces in 2025, amounting to the sixth straight year of supply shortage for the metal.
Is the silver price manipulated?
As a final note on silver, it’s important for investors to be aware that manipulation of prices is a major issue in the space.
For instance, in 2015, 10 banks were hit in a US probe on precious metals manipulation. Evidence provided by Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) showed “smoking gun” proof that UBS Group (NYSE:UBS), HSBC Holdings (NYSE:HSBC), the The Bank of Nova Scotia (TSX:BNS) and other firms were involved in rigging silver rates from 2007 to 2013. In May 2023, a silver manipulation lawsuit filed in 2014 against HSBC and the Bank of Nova Scotia was dismissed by a US court.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) has been long at the center of silver manipulation claims as well. For years the firm has been in and out of court for the accusations. In 2020, JPMorgan agreed to pay US$920 million to resolve federal agency probes regarding the manipulation of multiple markets, including precious metals.
In 2014, the London Silver Market Fixing stopped administering the London silver fix, which had been used for over a century to fix the price of silver. It was replaced by the LBMA Silver Price, which is run by ICE Benchmark Administration, in a bid to increase market transparency.
Market watchers like Ed Steer have said that the days of silver manipulation are numbered, and that the market will see a significant shift when the time finally comes.
Investor takeaway
While silver has neared US$50 multiple times, including its all-time high, it’s anyone’s guess whether it will reach those heights once again. Many commentators say prospects are bright for silver, and investors will no doubt be watching to see how the metal fares.
This is an updated version of an article first published by the Investing News Network in 2015.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, currently hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Silver Price Surges Above US$40 for First Time Since 2011
Silver price chart, June 1 to September 2, 2025.
Chart via the Investing News Network.
Alongside silver's move, the gold price reached a fresh all-time high on Tuesday as expectations rose that the Fed will cut interest rates when it meets next from September 16 to 17.
Although inflation has been moving further from the Fed’s 2 percent target, there has been greater uncertainty in the labor force. July’s nonfarm payroll report indicated slowing growth in the jobs market and featured a downward revision of 258,000 fewer jobs in May and June combined. The next report, due on Friday (September 5), has analysts predicting further weakness in the US jobs market, with expectations of 73,000 jobs being added to the economy.
A weak jobs market has been fueled by uncertainty within the economy since the start of the year amid an ever-changing tariff policy under President Donald Trump. On August 29, a federal appeals court struck down the majority of Trump’s tariffs in a seven-to-four ruling, deeming the levies to be unconstitutional.
The tariffs will remain in place until October 14, giving the White House time to mount an appeal of the decision with the Supreme Court of the US. The order adds another level of uncertainty to an already chaotic market, pushing 10 and 30 year bond yields up and driving a selloff in equity markets. Investors are spooked that the ruling may require the government to repay tariffs that have already been collected, adding to the ballooning US federal debt.
The silver price is also benefiting from the high gold price, as some investors look for safe-haven assets at lower entry points. Additionally, silver has increasing industrial applications, which have driven a structural supply deficit in the market, providing underlying fundamental support for investors.
Don't forget to follow us @INN_Resource for real-time updates!
Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
