Is Primary Silver Mining Unsustainable?

SRSrocco Report reported that the primary silver mining industry is not sustainable at current silver prices, meaning that seven of the top 12 silver miners will likely incur net losses for the second quarter of 2013.

As quoted in the market news:

…the estimated silver break-even of $26.45 is higher than the net income break-even ($25.40) as I separate the by-product revenue to obtain a more realistic pure silver break-even figure.  However, I am only going to focus on net income break-even during this article as it is much quicker and easier to explain.

If we go to Kitco and look at the average price of silver during the second quarter of 2013, it was $23.10 — that should set off some alarm bells.  Not only is the average price of silver Q2 2013 much less than the realized price for the group Q1 2013 ($29.85), but its less than their net income break-even of $25.40 by $2.30 an ounce.

Click here to read the full report from SRSrocco Report.