{"id":228461,"date":"2026-01-09T04:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T04:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/228461\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T04:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T04:17:10","slug":"poor-mans-gold-comes-in-from-the-cold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/228461\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Poor man’s gold’ comes in from the cold"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rows<\/p>\n

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Photo: 123rf\n<\/p>\n

Silver prices increased 150% in 2025
\n Gold rose by “just” 65% last year
\n Silver “dual use,” complicates supply<\/p>\n

Often dismissed as “the poor man’s gold”, silver outshone its more famous roommate in 2025, staging its biggest rally in modern trading history and smashing through 45\u2011year highs.<\/p>\n

Those previous highs – around US$50 an ounce – were set in the early 1980s when the now\u2011infamous billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt attempted to corner the global silver market.<\/p>\n

This time, however, the rally has been driven not by manipulation, but by a powerful mix of industrial demand, tightening supply, and resurgent investor interest.<\/p>\n

Gold prices may have surged<\/a> 65 percent to around US$4300 in 2025, but silver more than doubled that performance, finishing the year 148 percent higher at US$71.60 an ounce.<\/p>\n

The dual use precious metal<\/p>\n

Many of the forces that propelled gold higher last year also supported silver.<\/p>\n

For centuries gold has served as a store of wealth – rare, dense, and importantly, gold doesn’t rust.<\/p>\n

In today’s world, it is also used as a hedge against geopolitical risk, inflation, and the steady debasement of fiat currencies.<\/p>\n

Local bullion dealer NZGold estimates that central banks collectively purchased 600 metric tonnes of physical gold in 2025 – worth around US$86 billion (NZ$150 billion) – as they continued diversifying away from the US dollar.<\/p>\n

Silver, though more abundant, shares several of gold’s investor\u2011friendly traits, including durability and its function as a monetary metal, and it doesn’t rust.<\/p>\n

Unlike gold, silver also has widespread industrial applications.<\/p>\n

Most solar panels require silver, and it is a critical component in the electronics, semiconductor, and electric\u2011vehicle battery supply chains.<\/p>\n

Demand from renewable energy, electrification, and AI\u2011driven data\u2011centre expansion is forecast to underpin future consumption.<\/p>\n

Silver supply melts away<\/p>\n

Years of underinvestment in silver mining have contributed to a cumulative supply deficit of 796 million ounces between 2021 and 2025 – worth roughly US$62b (NZ$108b) at 2025 prices, according to the World Silver Survey.<\/p>\n

Compounding the issue, 70-75 percent of global silver output is produced as a by\u2011product of mining copper, lead, zinc, and gold, meaning higher silver prices do not easily translate into higher silver production.<\/p>\n

Concerns about future supply shortages led the United States to officially designate silver as a critical mineral.<\/p>\n

Combined with returning investor appetite on the back of rising gold prices, the reasons behind silver’s explosive rally become clear.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: 123rf Silver prices increased 150% in 2025 Gold rose by “just” 65% last year Silver “dual use,”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[964,904,42,43,965,963,961,962,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-228461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}