Silver shortage report from Australia

I received this email from a friend in Australia, who has some information regarding the silver shortage in that country. Australia is supposed to be a major mining country, but apparently many of their mines are shut down, due to the low price of silver.

Here is the letter:

Stephen,

 

Today Sue and I travelled to Brisbane today to purchase silver for the May1st movement. We hope it niggles JPMorgans just a little. We have done so before having followed your blogs of general "silver news" along with Bob Henley's; today's purchase was Australian $1.00 one ounce Koala coins said to be the best value and able to be readily cashed in view of the looming GFC2. 

 

But the most interesting news from the day was that the merchant said the cost of extraction of silver from Australian mines is so high that Australian silver mines are essentially closed and have been for some years, awaiting a resurgence in prices. I am not sure to what level the price of silver must rise to encourage the opening of mines.

 

So I asked, where does the Australian silver come from...............you may be surprised to know, it comes from the US! So it seems we here in Australia are also feeding off American silver reserves. I asked her how is supply, to which she said it is becoming very tight with one shipment almost in the Port of Brisbane now and another about to embark from the US, however she did not speak of the volume but to say the first batch is already sold and taking orders for the second. She mentioned the Perth Mint which is the authorised mint that produces legal tender gold and silver coins besides bullion, is scrounging for both metals with limited production because of shortage.

 

I thought you might like to hear verbatim, the predicament of a Brisbane silver merchant.