State‑Backed Silver Grab: Violent Durango Mine Seizure Shows Mexico’s ‘Implied Consent’ to Resource Raids

Prior to reading this update. Mexico sanctioning Violent takeover of Mexican silver mine lets provide some context

Silver is already in multi‑year structural deficit, with demand exceeding mine and scrap supply and drawing down inventories.

Industrial demand for Silver is surging from solar, electronics, EV/solid‑state batteries, defense, aerospace, robotics and AI hardware. India is monetizing silver through record imports and growing use as savings and investment within its financial system. New RBI rules encourage silver to enter the banking system as collateral (along with gold)

Tight physical markets and backwardation show paper benchmarks are losing clean control over silver pricing. Backwardation encourages hoarding Silver now which is a distortion in market. Future silver should always cost more when there is diminishing supply amid soaring demand. Especially since the existing mines are not producing more product (ore grade declines, no new discoveries, silver held back for strategic reasons) Banks are exiting short positions and going long. Silver largely comes out of the ground as a by‑product, making responsive supply much tighter than headline ore grades suggest. Silver mined at 8 to 1 ratio Refined, above‑ground silver is far scarcer relative to gold than old “15:1 in the earth” clichés imply. China is effectively treating silver as a strategic metal by tightening behavior around exports of critical industrial materials. Next week China restricts silver exports. China is World’s #1 user of Silver and #2 producer of Silver.

Mexican silver mining faces rising political and physical risk, including state‑tolerated armed takeovers like the Indé Mine. Mexico is philosophically aligned with China, Russia and Iran and tensions between US and Mexico are hostile. Trump calls them “thugs” and “rapists” Western media remains largely silent on this unfolding silver squeeze and its macro implications.

Bullion dealers show recurring product tightness and delays, yet there is still no broad retail silver FOMO in the West.

“The researchers showed that 3D printing, broadly also known as additive manufacturing, can be a faster way to cool and solidify the aluminum alloy. Specifically, they considered laser bed powder fusion (LBPF) — a technique by which a powder is deposited, layer by layer, on a surface in a desired pattern and then quickly melted by a laser that traces over the pattern. The melted pattern is thin enough that it solidfies quickly before another layer is deposited and similarly “printed.” The team found that LBPF’s inherently rapid cooling and solidification enabled the small-precipitate, high-strength aluminum alloy that their machine learning method predicted.”

https://scitechdaily.com/mit-engineers-create-3d-printable-aluminum-5-times-stronger-than-conventional-alloys/

I had no idea that silver was used in the manufacturing of solar panels. I thought they were all just solid state silicon devices.

Silver is widely used in the manufacturing of most solar panels, particularly crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) cells, which dominate over 90% of the global market.
Role of Silver in Solar Panels
Silver is primarily used in the form of a conductive paste that is screen-printed onto silicon wafers to form the front and rear electrodes (often in a grid-like "finger" pattern). This creates pathways for electrons generated by sunlight to flow as electricity. Silver's exceptional electrical conductivity—the highest of any metal—makes it ideal for minimizing energy loss and maximizing panel efficiency.
A typical solar panel (around 2 square meters) contains about 15–20 grams of silver.
The solar industry is a major driver of global silver demand, consuming around 13–19% of annual silver supply in recent years (e.g., over 140 million ounces in 2023), with projections for continued growth or even higher shares by 2030 due to expanding PV installations.
Newer cell technologies like TOPCon and heterojunction (HJT) often require more silver per cell for higher efficiency, though manufacturers are innovating to reduce it (e.g., via finer printing or partial copper substitution). Thin-film solar panels (a smaller market share) typically use little to no silver.
The silver is permanently embedded in solar panels during their operational life. It is screen-printed as a conductive paste onto silicon wafers, fired at high temperatures to form integral grid lines (fingers and busbars) and electrodes on the solar cells. This bonds the silver metallically to the silicon, making it a fixed part of the cell structure within the laminated module (encased in glass, EVA encapsulant, and backsheet). It cannot be removed without disassembling or processing the panel.
However, silver can be recycled at the end of a panel's economic life (typically 25–30 years). End-of-life (EOL) crystalline silicon panels—the dominant type—are recyclable, and silver is a prime target due to its high value and criticality.
Most decommissioned panels are landfilled or downcycled (e.g., frames and glass recovered, but cells shredded), with low overall recycling rates (<10–15% in many regions). However, specialized processes recover silver effectively.
Mechanical delamination/separation followed by chemical leaching (e.g., nitric acid, sulfuric acid, or organic acids) to dissolve and extract silver.
Advanced lab and pilot processes achieve 95–99%+ silver recovery, often with >99% purity suitable for reuse in new panels or electronics. Commercial recyclers (e.g., SOLARCYCLE) report up to 99% for precious metals like silver.

Kitco silver at 71.84 right now...

The great Silver shortage ( scramble) in force, been that way for awhile. China now setting the Silver prices, they drained the western Comex and LBMA while western banks pushed the price down( manipulated) through millions of short paper contracts.........they took delivery on metric tons.

Two take aways:
- Western bullion banks losing $$$ billions covering their naked shorts.
- China’s SGE trades only in physical, they are now the market movers. The world’s Wealth is moving away from the corrupt Western market to the East.

I really hope the corrupted western banks pay a high price, up to and including bankruptcy....Justice served.

Note: JP Morgan has been fined six times for manipulation of the Silver Gold markets ( last fine $$$ 900 million) yet they continued. Their time is up.

--- "Theft is Theft."

Consider the history of theft, as found in...

Executive Order 6102: A Deep Dive into FDR's Gold Confiscation Program

Silver. Gold. And... last year's 1040 Form had a line – “At any time during 2024, did you: (a) receive (as a reward, award, or payment for property or services); or (b) sell, exchange, or otherwise dispose of a digital asset (or a financial interest in a digital asset)?”

The instructions for that line stated, “Do not leave the question unanswered. You must answer 'Yes' or 'No' by checking the appropriate box.”

As the fiat currency game comes to its conclusion, and assets-backed currencies are proposed, perhaps the interest in silver, gold and those various other "assets" are coming to the attention of those for whom "more" means something more.

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