Above-ground silver stocks are an order of magnitude higher than what is widely assumed.
In total, there were an estimated 1.6 million metric tonnes of physical silver above ground by late 2018. This amount is 20 times higher than what The Silver Institute discloses as "identifiable above-ground stocks," which is what's widely assumed to be the total above-ground stock. The huge discrepancy is important to analyze, as it reveals silver's true stock-to-flow ratio and supply and demand dynamics. Misunderstanding these dynamics would mean failing to understand the price of silver.
Relatively shortly after humans discovered