Why Silver
Silver sits where rising demand from electrification and artificial intelligence meets a supply that cannot easily respond to price.
TSX-V: CDA · OTCQB: CNUCF · WKN: A41V6H
The indispensable metal
It is one of the few materials that is both a monetary metal and an industrial necessity, and that dual role has rarely mattered more.
From money to industry
Silver has been used as money for thousands of years. The word “sterling” comes from a pound of silver. For three centuries, the world’s most trusted coin was the Spanish dollar, struck from Mexican and Andean silver, with the Mexico City mint operating from 1535. It circulated across the Americas, Europe and China, and became the model for the US dollar.
In the 1870s, the leading economies moved to the gold standard and silver lost its formal monetary role. Industry took its place. Photography became one of its largest uses in the twentieth century, followed by electronics, and today solar power, electric vehicles and the data centres that run artificial intelligence. Silver never fully stopped being money, and it is still held and traded as a financial asset alongside its industrial use.
What silver does
Silver is a noble metal that resists corrosion and oxidation. It has the highest thermal and electrical conductivity of any metal, which makes it ideal for electrical applications. Its antimicrobial, non-toxic qualities make it useful in medicine and consumer products. Its lustre and reflectivity suit jewellery, silverware and mirrors. It is malleable and ductile, and its sensitivity to light gave it a central place in film photography.
Silver is used in solder and brazing alloys, batteries, electrical contacts and switchgear, semiconductors, LED chips, solar cells, touch screens, RFID chips, satellites, dentistry, medicine and pharmaceuticals, X-rays, water purification, glass coatings and nuclear reactors. The Silver Institute calls it “the indispensable metal”.
Figure 1
Silver demand by use, 2025
Million ounces · share of total demand
Demand today
Industrial uses now account for over half of annual silver demand, about 57 percent on the 2026 forecast and about 58 percent in 2025. Solar power is the largest single industrial use. It took 186.6 million ounces in 2025 and is forecast at 151 million ounces in 2026, as manufacturers continue to reduce the silver used in each panel. Electric vehicles and grid equipment add steadily to demand. AI data centres are the fastest-emerging use: the World Silver Survey 2026 expects them to take more than 10 percent of electrical and electronics demand, more than 42 million ounces a year on the 2026 forecast, close to the annual output of a major producing country. Investment demand for coins, bars and exchange-traded products remains a significant and variable part of the market.
The by-product problem
About 74 percent of silver is mined as a by-product of copper, lead, zinc and gold. In 2025 the primary-silver share fell to 26 percent, a new low. Lead and zinc mines supplied 29 percent, copper mines 28 percent and gold mines 16 percent. When the price of silver rises, few new silver mines follow, because most silver comes from mines run for other metals. Copper, the most important of these, faces declining ore grades and rising costs, which slows the growth of the silver produced alongside it.
The 2025 market showed this clearly. The LBMA silver price rose 145 percent over the year, from $29.41 on 2 January to $71.99 at the close, after reaching a high of $74.84 on 30 December, yet mine production rose only 2.8 percent, to 846.6 million ounces, and the World Silver Survey forecasts a slight fall in 2026, to 844.1 million ounces. Recycling, the source of supply that responds most to price, reached a twelve-year high of 197.6 million ounces.
Figure 2
Where mined silver comes from, 2025
Share of 2025 mine supply
Time to supply
New mines take many years to move from discovery to production, on average 15.7 years in S&P Global’s study of 127 precious- and base-metal mines, and closer to 18 years for mines that started in 2020–23. Supply decisions made today will not reach the market until the next decade. That is where exploration earns its value.
A strategic metal in a fragmenting world
In November 2025, the United States added silver and copper to its official list of critical minerals. In February 2026 it announced Project Vault, a strategic critical-minerals stockpile. Governments increasingly treat mineral supply as a matter of national security, through export controls, tariffs, stockpiling and regional supply agreements. China tightened the licensing of silver exports from January 2026, naming 44 companies allowed to export in 2026 and 2027. As the world’s largest silver producer, Mexico sits at the centre of these shifts, inside the North American trading relationship and alongside the largest consumer markets.
Fragile supply chains
Silver bullion is valuable enough that freight costs barely affect it. The pressure falls upstream, on the concentrate, fuel and reagents that must travel between mines and smelters. Drought linked to El Niño restricted traffic through the Panama Canal in 2023 and 2024. Conflict has disrupted Red Sea shipping. In March 2026, disruption at Qatar’s Ras Laffan halted a plant supplying around a fifth of global liquefied natural gas, and damage to part of its export capacity is expected to take years to repair, raising energy costs for industry worldwide. Secure supply from stable jurisdictions now carries a premium.
The balance
Demand has exceeded supply for six consecutive years. The World Silver Survey 2026 forecasts a deficit of 46.3 million ounces in 2026, after a cumulative shortfall of 716 million ounces between 2021 and 2025. Including the 2026 forecast, the cumulative draw is 762 million ounces. Silver also has buffers. Large above-ground stocks are held by investors, industrial users, dealers and banks, and the active over-the-counter market allows them to move to where they are needed. Recycling rises with price, and manufacturers continue to reduce the silver used in each product.
Those buffers come at a cost. On 9 October 2025, the annualised cost of borrowing silver bars in London rose to 34.9 percent, against less than 1 percent in a normal market, before metal was drawn in from New York and Shanghai to relieve the shortage. The buffers can absorb deficits for a time, but they do not change the direction of travel when mine supply cannot respond.
Figure 3
Silver market balance, 2021–2026F
Million ounces · deficits below the zero line · 2026 forecast hatched
Mining in Mexico
Mexico is the world’s leading silver producer, accounting for about 20 percent of global mine output in 2025, at 172.9 million ounces, with a mining history spanning more than 500 years. It has a skilled mining workforce and competitive costs, and Canadian companies are among the most active explorers and operators in the country. No new mining concessions have been granted since the 2023 mining reform, although permitting on existing concessions has begun to move again.
Sonora is best known as Mexico’s copper heartland, but it is also a significant silver state in its own right. In 2025 it ranked fourth for silver, with 13.3 percent of national output, behind Zacatecas (41.8 percent), Chihuahua (18.3 percent) and Durango (17.3 percent). Its large copper mines show the by-product link between the two metals in practice.
Figure 4
Mexico’s leading silver states
Canuc and silver
Canuc’s San Javier project in Sonora is a 1,052-hectare silver-gold project interpreted as related to a silver-dominant iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) system. Surface sampling reported in the Company’s news release of 22 May 2018, “Canuc Provides Exploration Update for San Javier”, returned:
- 698 grams per tonne (g/t) silver over 2.0 metres at the Jazmín working;
- 625 g/t silver over 1.5 metres in breccia at Chiripas;
- 477 g/t silver over 3.8 metres in vein material at Little Pit.
The Little Pit interval also carried 0.41 percent copper (news release, 9 January 2018). Surface samples are selective by nature and are not necessarily representative of mineralisation on the property.
IOCG systems typically carry copper, gold and silver together. Most of the world’s silver is produced as a by-product of other metals. In a silver-dominant system, silver is the primary metal, with copper and gold alongside it.
Qualified Person
The scientific and technical information on this page has been reviewed and approved by a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. The sampling results referred to above were first disclosed in the Company’s news releases dated 9 January 2018 and 22 May 2018, which describe the sampling, analytical and quality-control procedures used.
Forward-looking statements
This page contains forward-looking information. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information; see the Company’s filings on SEDAR+ and its news releases for full cautionary statements.
Sources
World Silver Survey 2026, Silver Institute and Metals Focus, published 15 April 2026. Industrial demand 657.4 million ounces in 2025 and 639.6 million ounces forecast for 2026. Total demand 1,130.6 million ounces and 1,112.6 million ounces. Photovoltaic demand 186.6 million ounces in 2025 and 151.0 million ounces forecast for 2026. Electrical and electronics demand forecast at 422.9 million ounces in 2026; data-centre offtake expected to exceed 10 percent of that segment. Market balance −83.7, −254.0, −200.1, −137.9 and −40.3 million ounces for 2021 to 2025, and −46.3 million ounces forecast for 2026. Cumulative deficit through 2026: 762.1 million ounces. Mine production 846.6 million ounces in 2025, up 2.8 percent, and 844.1 million ounces forecast for 2026. Primary silver 26.1 percent of 2025 mine supply. Recycling 197.6 million ounces in 2025. Demand by use in 2025: coin and net bar 217.7, jewellery 189.3, silverware 42.1 and photography 24.2 million ounces. Net investment in exchange-traded products, 278.1 million ounces in 2025, is reported below the market balance line and is not included in total demand.
LBMA, Precious Metals Market Report, Q4 and full year 2025, and Annual Forecast Survey note, 8 January 2026. Silver rose 144.82 percent, from $29.41 on 2 January to a close of $71.990, with a high of $74.835 on 30 December. The 2025 average was $40.03, against $28.27 in 2024.
Bloomberg, “Silver Lease Rates Plunge as Historic Market Squeeze Eases”, 27 October 2025. One-month London silver lease rates peaked at 34.9 percent on 9 October 2025, then fell to 5.6 percent by 27 October.
S&P Global Market Intelligence, “Discovery to production averages 15.7 years for 127 mines”, 6 June 2023. Later updates put 2020–23 starts near 17.9 years and 2020–24 starts near 17.8 years.
US Geological Survey, final 2025 List of Critical Minerals, published 6 November 2025; Interior Department note, 14 November 2025. Silver and copper were among ten additions.
Project Vault: New York Times, “Trump Unveils $12 Billion Critical Minerals Stockpile”, 2 February 2026; Export-Import Bank loan of $10 billion, with about $2 billion of private capital.
Reuters, “China names companies allowed to export silver over 2026–2027”, 30 December 2025. Trivium China, 7 January 2026, on licence requirements effective 1 January 2026.
Reuters, 4 March 2026, and Bloomberg, 2 March 2026, on the Ras Laffan halt and its share of about a fifth of global LNG. S&P Global, 19 March 2026, on damage to two of 14 trains, about 17 percent of QatarEnergy export capacity, and a three-to-five-year repair estimate.
Camimex, Informe Anual 2026, citing INEGI: Mexican silver production 168.2 million ounces in 2025; state shares Zacatecas 41.8 percent, Chihuahua 18.3 percent, Durango 17.3 percent, Sonora 13.3 percent. The World Silver Survey puts Mexico at 172.9 million ounces, about 20 percent of world mine output. The text uses the survey figure for the global share.
Mexican concessions: BNamericas, “Mexico eases mining burden without touching key reform”, 28 May 2026. New concessions remain frozen under the 2023 Mining Law reform; administrative permitting on existing activity has been accelerated.
Canuc Resources news releases: 22 May 2018, “Canuc Provides Exploration Update for San Javier”: Jazmín 698 g/t silver over 2.0 metres; Chiripas 625 g/t silver over 1.5 metres; Little Pit 477 g/t silver over 3.8 metres. 9 January 2018: Little Pit 3.8 metres averaging 477 g/t silver and 0.41 percent copper. The Company describes San Javier as a 28-claim, 1,052-hectare silver-gold project interpreted as related to a silver-dominant IOCG system, repeated in later releases including 9 September 2026.