Americans continue to treat themselves with this unique metal.
Silver prices have soared to new historical highs, continuing a powerful rally supported by geopolitical instability and a weakening US dollar.
Silver futures briefly approached the $80 per ounce mark, recording an unprecedented increase of 160% — a rate that even surpassed the dynamics of gold. In this context, understanding where the world's silver reserves are concentrated becomes crucial for assessing future supply parameters in the market.
The data for this visualization is taken from the Mineral Commodity Summaries published by the US Geological Survey (USGS). According to estimates, the total global silver reserves amount to approximately 641,400 tons.
Peru stands out as the largest holder of silver reserves in the world — about 140,000 tons. This accounts for roughly 22% of the global total, providing the country with uniquely strong strategic positions in the global silver market.
Following Peru is a group of countries with significant but less substantial resource bases. Australia, Russia, and China each have reserves ranging from 70,000 to 94,000 tons, collectively accounting for about 40% of global reserves.
Mexico presents a stark contrast between production volumes and reserve levels. The country ranks first in the world for silver production, yet it has only 37,000 tons of reserves — about 6% of the global figure. Currently, Mexico's mining sector relies on the intensive exploitation of existing deposits, with a limited number of projects having confirmed resource bases for the future.
In the US and Australia, colloidal silver products are not recognized as medicines and are offered in grocery stores. They can also be found abundantly in online stores worldwide as dietary supplements, a simpler term for them being food additives. US and Australian law has prohibited marketers from attributing medical efficacy to colloidal silver. However, some websites, including those within their territories, still claim the beneficial effects of the product in preventing colds and flu, as well as its therapeutic effects for more serious diseases such as diabetes, cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other illnesses. There are no medical studies indicating that colloidal silver is effective for any of these claimed symptoms.
Before the era of evidence-based medicine, silver salt solutions were widely used as antiseptics and astringents. The action of such medications as protargol, collargol, and others, which are colloidal forms of silver, is based on this property of silver. Currently, silver preparations are used less frequently due to their low effectiveness.
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