In terms of commodities, silver has always lived in gold’s shadow, only moving when its more expensive cousin moved seemingly without having a life of its own.

As our global economy makes the necessary transition to renewable energy sources and carbon-free power, silver is beginning to sport the distinctive personality it deserves.

Silver straddles two worlds of value. Both an industrial metal and fungible commodity, silver gains serious traction in a digital world in need of affordable risk-off assets you can use to buy bread.

It can be argued, that like diamonds are manipulated by the DeBeers family, silver’s value was artificially suppressed by JP Morgan. Fortunately, as outside factors like inflation and geopolitical instability press their powerful influence upon the global economy, silver breaks free from these contrived bonds.

According to Statista, global silver production in 2020 amounted to 784.4 million ounces while demand came to 896.1 million ounces. Even though the global estimated resource of silver is 976.2 million ounces, it only matters what is being pulled from the ground, so there is a definite growing demand for silver that outstrips production.

Investors are getting caught with their pants down, playing derivatives including options as well as trendy digital assets with more baseball card appeal than real value. As markets continue to correct, solid investments in stable commodities provide a certain safety that escapes lunatic investment strategies like GME and AMC bag-holding.

That said, just investing in silver for the sake of investing in a commodity, isn’t the smartest idea either. What’s your risk profile? Are you looking for growth or dividends?

Majors like Fresnillo (FRES.LSE), Hecla Mining (HL) and Pan American Silver (PAAS.T), all pay dividends from producing properties. These investments are slow burn and accumulate over time as they are retirement plays.

If you’re looking for growth, there are many junior/mids to choose from depending once again on your risk profile. Here is a list of a few in descending order according to market cap.

MAG Silver (MAG.T)

MAG Silver is a Vancouver, Canada-based silver explorer pushing to become a top-tier primary silver miner.

The company’s flagship Juanicipio silver project located in Zacatacas, Mexico is a district scale high grade epithermal silver deposit.

MAG has 44% interest in Juanicipio with 56% owned by operator, Fresnillo PLC. The project is on fertile ground, situated in the Fresnillo Silver Trend where Fresnillo is currently developing an underground mine and constructing a 4,000 tonnes per day process plant due to be commissioned by the end of 2021.

According to company literature, Juanicipio, in 95% unexplored and has a measured and indicated resource of 176 million ounces of silver, 867,000 ounces of gold, 598 million pounds lead, 1041 million pounds Zinc and 38 million pounds copper. The project also has an inferred resource of 91 million ounces silver, 562,000 ounces gold, 658 million pounds lead, 1252 million pounds of zinc and 71 million pounds of copper.

The Juanicipio mill commissioning is expected by the end of 2022 subject to power grid hookup and the 2017 PEA study outlines a 19-year mine life.

MAG is already processing development heading material two days per month at a nominal expected rate of 16,000 per month. For the three months ending September 30, 2021, on a 100% basis:

• 57,127 tonnes of mineralized material were batch processed through the Fresnillo plant, with 619,791 payable silver ounces, 993 payable gold ounces, 232 tonnes of lead and 312 tonnes of zinc produced and sold;
• Average silver head grade was 418 grams per tonne (“g/t”) in the development material processed; and
• Pre-commercial production sales totaled $14,684 for the quarter (net of treatment and processing costs), less $3,477 in mining and transportation costs, netting $11,207 in gross profit by Minera Juanicipio in the quarter.

Five drill rigs are currently on surface running concurrently with continued underground definition and geotechnical drilling.

MAG’s portfolio also includes Deer Trail Project, located in Piute County, Utah, USA and Cinco de Mayo, located 190 kilometres northwest of Chihuahua City in northern Chihuahua State, Mexico.

Deer Trail includes the historic Deer Trail Mine and has 20,000 metres of drilling results. Phase 1 drill results include:

• 2.30 metres of 1 g/t Au and 101 g/t Ag
• 1.90 metres of 38.2 g/t Au and 952 g/t Ag
• 0.36 metres of 111.5 g/t Au and 2340 g/t Ag

Phase II drilling commenced August 20, 2021, for 5,000 metres over five holes – all assays are pending.

MAG has $32 million USD in the till with no debt as of September 30, 2021 and currently trades at $18.46 CAD per share for a market cap of $1.81 billion.

Endeavour Silver (EDR.T)

Endeavour Silver is a Vancouver, Canada-based miner focused on discovering and developing silver projects.

The company’s portfolio includes both exploration and producing silver projects in Mexico, Chile and the U.S.

Endeavour’s producing properties are in Mexico and include the Guanacevi, in Durango State, Bolanitos, in Guanajuato State, and Terronera, in Jalisco State.

Guanacevi is an underground mine with 80% silver and 20% gold dole bar production. The mine currently processes at a 1,200 tpd processing plant.

Midpoint guidance at Guanacevi for 2022 is 500,000 ounces Ag and 22,000 ounces of Au. The silver gold grade in 2021 was 370 g/t Ag and 1.09 g/t Au.

Bolanitos is another underground mine with 80% silver and 20% gold concentrate production. The mine currently processes approximately 1,200 tpd.

Midpoint guidance at Bolanitos for 2022 is 500,000 ounces Ag and 22,000 ounces Au. Silver gold grade for fiscal 2021 was 42 g/t Ag and 2.02 g/t Au.

Terronera is considered a 60% silver and 40% gold asset. The project is currently in feasibility stage and supports a high-grade silver/gold underground mine with a 12-year life.

Estimations from the report note Terronera could produce 3.3 million payable ounces of Ag and 32,874 payable ounces of gold per year.

Endeavour is still waiting for a construction permit to proceed to production at Terronera.

The silver miner’s exploration assets include:

• Parral Project
  • Location near Parral city, Chihuahua State, Mexico
  • Past producing
  • High grade veins ranging from 100 to 1000 g/t Ag
  • Multiple targets
• Bruner Gold project
  • Located 180 kilmetres southeast of Reno, Nevada, USA
  • Past producer
  • Historic resource estimate of 342,000 ounces Au
  • Possible open pit mine
• Paloma
  • Located in northern Chile, approximately 150 kilometres east-southeast of Calama, Chile
  • 5,100 hectares with eight mineral concessions which Endeavour holds an option to acquire up to 70%
  • Bulk tonnage and/or high grade high sulfidation epithermal gold project
• Aida
  • Located in northern Chile approximately 180 kilometres southeast of Calama, Chile.
  • 7,900 hectares consisting of three older mining concessions which includes the historic past producing mine Mina Veija, on which Endeavour holds to the option to acquire up to 100% interest subject to a 2% NSR
• Lourdes
  • Located in the Sierra del Cubo area near San Felipe, Guanajuato, Mexico
  • 509 hectares
  • High grade bonanza grades around 300 g/t Ag and 2 g/t Au
  • Low-sulfidation epithermal veins of silver and gold

Endeavour reported it had $101.08 USD million in cash and cash equivalents in Q3 2021 with $34.56 million in revenue for a net loss of $4.48 million.

The company currently trades at $5.10 CAD per share for a market cap of $856.02 million.

Canada Silver Cobalt Works (CCW.V)

Canada Silver Cobalt Works (CCW) is a Coquitlam, British Columbia-based junior explorer focused on the exploration and development of energy metals the prolific Northern Ontario Silver-Cobalt District.

The company seeks to resume mining high-grade silver and cobalt at the 100% owned Castle and Beaver mines.

Castle Mine historically produced 9.5 million ounces of silver and 300,000 pounds of cobalt while Beaver Mine historically produced 7.1 million ounces of silver and 139,000 pounds of cobalt.

The Castle property is located 85 kilometres northwest of the renowned Cobalt Silver Mining Camp.

A 2011 drill campaign at the project intersected 3.09 metres grading 6,476 grams per tonne silver in one of 12 holes comprising 6,000 metres of drilling.

CCW followed up this work and announced on January 22, 2022, that it had intersected 6,188.43 g/t Ag and 74.67 g/t Au equivalent at Castle East. Remaining results from this campaign are expected by the end of Q1 2022.

The Beaver project is in northeastern Ontario, near the town of Cobalt. The property is one single patented 20-acre mining claim including surface and mineral rights.

CCW announced on January 18, 2022, that it had installed a gravity pilot plant at Temiskaming Testing Labs to being testing high-grade stamp mill tailings from the Beaver mine and the Castle mine once commissioning of the pilot plant is complete. Testing is expected to begin within four weeks.

The junior miner doesn’t have the market cap of the first two silver explorers, but it has an interesting value proposition, important infrastructure and recent share performance that makes it a standout option within the small cap silver space.

The company’s portfolio also includes the Violet Property which historically produced 897,291 ounces of silver from 1919-1925. The project has five known veins and possesses good exploration potential as it has laid fallow for several decades.

CCW reported $25,436 in cash as of September 30, 2021, with exploration cap ex totaling $1.63 million during that same period. The junior just closed a $3.4 million private placement of flow-through shares on December 21, 2021.

The company currently trades at $0.22 per share for a market cap of $35.95 million.

Silver Grail Resources (SVG.V)

Silver Grail Resources is a BC-based miner who works closely with Teuton Resources to develop mineral properties in northern British Columbia’s legendary Golden Triangle.

President and CEO, Dino Cremonese, is a 40-year industry veteran geologist responsible for researching and then staking to major gold/silver discoveries, Red Mountain and Treaty Creek-Goldstorm, both in the Golden Triangle.

Cremonese intends to build on his reputation with Silver Grail. The company is a unique figure in junior exploration as it only has 33 million shares issued and outstanding.

Like other juniors however, its portfolio is replete with 10 different projects the company considers to be high quality.

Silver Grail did attract the attention of mining sector investment icon, Eric Sprott, who saw fit to invest $250,000 in the venture through a non-brokered private placement in June 2020.

Management puts forward the image of frugality stating that in the past six years zero dollars were spent on execs with 100% of those funds going directly into exploration.

This penny stock has greater potential for growth than the previously two miners mentioned, but with that growth opportunity comes greater risk. Lack of capital and early-stage challenges can put a company like this to bed before it is able to get started.

Silver Grail’s flagship property is Konkin Silver, located 29 kilometres east of Stewart, British Columbia. The project boasts historic drilling results including an intersection of 10 feet of 5.02 ounces per ton silver in 1995.

However, pursuant to my previous point, the junior announced in November that its most recent drill campaign at Konkin and Midas property came up dry. This is a death knell announcement for an early-stage explorer, and it will take years for investors to forget the incident.

In the company’s favor, it was a four-drill program at Konkin and a single poke at Midas, totalling 1,597 metres. Hardly an in-depth or extensive campaign, so one cannot conclude out of hand that the properties in question aren’t production capable.

Still, not a good sign as Silver Grail was hoping a cursory examination of the projects would return results worthy of further investment that would drive a more detailed and expansive follow-up program.

This is a wait-and-see opportunity. Cremonese obviously had enough cache to attract Sprott, so there still might be something to capitalize on with Silver Grail, its just up to the execution. The company is under the gun now and must gamble yet again, hoping to strike paydirt and open the project further.

Silver Grail’s portfolio also includes:

• Tonga Property
  • Located 32 kilometres southeast of Stewart, British Columbia
  • Historic float samples found in creeks running to 92 ounces per ton Ag and 1.33 ounces per ton Au
• Fiji
  • Bordered to the west of the Homestake Ridge gold/silver property of Fury Gold, approximately 28 kilometres southeast of Stewart, British Columbia
  • Samples in 2006 returned gold values higher than 11 g/t
• Clone
  • 1995-96 drilling returned 32.9-foot intercept grading 1.28 ounces per ton gold
• Royalty Properties
  • Bay Silver property
  • Silver Crown property
  • Mt. Boy property
• Three Cobalt & Copper properties

The company reported $342,408 in cash as of September 30, 2021 and recorded $106,427 in expenses for the corresponding quarter so there isn’t much room left before there needs to be another financing.

Silver Grail currently trades at $0.17 per share for a market cap of $5.65 million.

This is a partial list of opportunity; the rest is up to you. Please do your due diligence and speak with an investment professional before making any decisions about your portfolio. After your homework and professional consult is complete, you may find the silver mining investment option that’s right for you. Good to all!

–Gaalen Engen