John Reade

Gold hit a 12th all-time high of the year earlier today, but has then succumbed to a large correction. More than $450 high-low range in #gold today. https://t.co/VHMTDtllgV

#Silver taking some lumps here too, as one would expect during cross-asset weakness. https://t.co/OpHph8Guqj https://t.co/9j0QBUrJ9D

Silver recycling / scrap. From something I posted on LinkedIn earlier today. I have seen a lot of comments from individuals (and a few questions from companies) struggling to sell-back physical #silver at reasonable prices (or at all). Some refineries had stopped taking scrap of less than 90% purity already in October last year. There are at least two issues here. Firstly, silver refining capacity is relatively limited and one refiner told me that he had to put old US-bearing silver coins through his refinery 6X to get all the copper and other non-precious metals out. This obviously makes refining low purity silver scrap less attractive. The second issue is the cost of borrowing silver, which has spiked on physical shortages. Refineries need to borrow silver in order to fund themselves for the time difference between buying the scrap silver and receiving the proceeds for selling the refined metal. And if the scrap has to go through the plant multiple times to get rid of all the base contaminants, this makes the funding time (and thus cost) even longer. But the final thing to consider is that the fact that the refineries are swamped with scrap silver - but having to ration what they buy - shows a LOT of interest to profit from this move higher in silver. This metal will eventually come to a market that is being temporarily and artificially starved of scrap silver supply.

Silver recycling / scrap. From something I posted on LinkedIn earlier today. I have seen a lot of comments from individuals (and a few questions from companies) struggling to sell-back physical #silver at reasonable prices (or at all). Some refineries had stopped taking scrap of less than 90% purity already in October last year. There are at least two issues here. Firstly, silver refining capacity is relatively limited and one refiner told me that he had to put old US-bearing silver coins through his refinery 6X to get all the copper and other non-precious metals out. This obviously makes refining low purity silver scrap less attractive. The second issue is the cost of borrowing silver, which has spiked on physical shortages. Refineries need to borrow silver in order to fund themselves for the time difference between buying the scrap silver and receiving the proceeds for selling the refined metal. And if the scrap has to go through the plant multiple times to get rid of all the base contaminants, this makes the funding time (and thus cost) even longer. But the final thing to consider is that the fact that the refineries are swamped with scrap silver - but having to ration what they buy - shows a LOT of interest to profit from this move higher in silver. This metal will eventually come to a market that is being temporarily and artificially starved of scrap silver supply.

I'm delighted to announce I will be attending Mining Indaba 2026? Let me know if you will be coming too. Learn more and register here: https://t.co/MtlCzzEXPr

I have always liked the concept of BOLD Index, constructed with only #Bitcoin and #Gold (but cleverly weighted and regularly rebalanced). It demonstrates the complementary nature of these two asset classes. #BetterTogether :-) https://t.co/B8LVdMo7h4

So much for a quiet start to the year :-) Five ATHs so far this year (London PM Benchmark) in #gold with lots of drivers - some old, some new. Join @JCavatoni_WGC and I twice a month for #TheUnearthedPodcast https://t.co/NAoKEsAiME

With #gold off to the races again in 2026, I remain surprised that positioning on the Comex futures market remains relatively subdued. Net long managed money positions stand at only about 400t, much lower than recent highs seen in late '24. https://t.co/KJB0V7GzrG

And this chart illustrates just how far #gold and #silver have come in the past five years... https://t.co/SdsM276TOP

Position for the grandkids has worked out well this year. https://t.co/AkvWMEOFkp