When silver hit $50 an ounce in June 1980, the news was greeted ecstatically in any region around the world where silver was mined and processed.
I was a young newspaper reporter at the time, working on a story about silver mining in northern Idaho. Most people I talked to said $50 wouldn’t last because the market had been pushed higher by the Hunt Brothers’ attempt to corner the silver market.
But the number I kept hearing at the time was silver might fall back into the $20-to-$30 range, which would still be profitable for mining companies.
Silver, however, fell to $11 by March 1980 because global banks and even the Federal Reserve had to step in. The Hunts, it turned out, couldn’t service the billions they’d borrowed in their silver campaign. And that threatened major Wall Street brokerages and banks.
Silver ultimately fell below $4 an ounce in 1993 before finally starting to recover. But many of the miners I met 4,000 feet deep in Hecla Mining’s Lucky Friday mine in Mullan, Idaho, or in nearby bars and diners planning to buy a new pickup or a Hawaii vacation had already been ruined.
But silver has finally roared back.
It reached $102.925 per ounce on January 23. It closed at a record $100.925 an ounce on the January contract, its first close ever above $100.
Maybe those still mining silver are ecstatic again. Hecla (HL), founded in 1891, saw its shares jump 290.8% in 2025. They’re up 62.5% already this year. There’s hope silver and gold will keep rising, and Hecla executives will even ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Monday before holding an investor day.
Silver being refined at Swiss refinery in 2025.
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But the question on the minds of miners, mining companies and investors is how long will this buying fever last? They know, as Nevada commodities trader (and TheStreet Pro contributor) Carley Garner knows, the price will break.
To start, let us remember that all precious metals, including gold, platinum and palladium, hit new highs on Friday. Gold settled at $4,976.20 on Jan. 23 and is up 14.6% this year after a 65%-to-70% gain in 2025.
Related: Goldman Sachs quietly revamps gold price target for 2026
The metals run-up on Friday caused Garner to note on X, “This isn’t normal, it’s scary.”
While there are reasons to buy metals, she added, “They’ve GameStop’ed our commodities.”
Meaning: Prices are so high that… bad things could happen.
Causes for metals spike are growing
The reasons people are plunging willy-nilly into metals and mining companies’ shares include:
- Many investors believe governments around the world will continue debasing their currencies.
- Global tensions are still very much alive. Commodities prices surged on Friday after President Trump said “an armada” of Navy ships was on its way to Iran “just in case.”
- Many investors believe interest rates will fall further in 2026, with the Federal Reserve expected to trim its key federal funds rate twice this year — maybe in July or December, according to CME FedWatch.
- Central banks are adding to their gold holdings, especially to diversify. The buying started in 2010 after the 2008-2009 financial crisis. And, The Wall Street noted Friday, the buying accelerated in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. The National Bank of Poland plans to boost its gold holdings from 550 tons to 700 tons this year.
- Demand for silver, which has important uses in electronics and other industries, may be as much as five times the expected supply. And it takes years to bring a new mine into production.
- Exchange-traded funds have made it easier to invest in precious metals, said John Ciampaglia, CEO and senior managing partner of Sprott Asset Management, during a Thursday CNBC appearance. The iShares Silver Trust (SLV) hit a 52-week high of $92.98 before closing at $92.91. It’s up 44% this year. The iShares MSCI Global Silver and Metals Miners ETF (SLVP), started in 2012, ranged from $6 to $12 until February 2024. It finished Friday at $47.18, up 3%, up 37.7% on the year, and up 479% since 2012.
- In India, a nation filled with gold enthusiasts, gold’s big runup in the last year has forced many would-be buyers to buy cheaper silver instead, Ciampaglia said. And, he added, some who find silver too expensive are buying copper, up 42% in 2025 and about 4% in January.
What may break gold, silver stocks fever
Those with long memories say it will be the central banks, remembering the Fed’s role in halting the 1980s silver-and-gold bubble. The Fed was also forced to push interest rates up after 2022’s post-pandemic inflation spike.
But remember: Donald Trump wants the Fed to cut its fed funds rate dramatically.
Maybe the market will tip over just because it gets too high. Silver’s relative strength index on Friday was 74.4. The index is an indicator of how fast silver is rising right now, and the Friday level is a signal the metal is overbought.
That said, some analysts believe silver might rise to $125 an ounce, as they also see gold topping $5,000 as early as next week.
So, the catalyst may not yet be visible.