Here's a quote from Ross Beaty, CEO of Pan American Silver (PAAS)...
"I am chairman and CEO of Pan American Silver and have been president of the World Silver Institute for the last two years. Silver is my entire universe. The world stockpile of silver is probably 500 million ounces. More significantly, the U.S. government's strategic stockpile is now ZERO [Beaty's emphasis, not mine] . The last sales from the formerly huge [over 2 billion ounces in the 1950s] U.S. government strategic stockpile were in late 2002, and the stockpile is now totally depleted. U.S. Mint silver needs are now sourced from the open market. The depletion of this stockpile is very bullish for prices, as the only other government stockpile of silver globally is in China, and it is being depleted at a prodigious rate to fill the silver deficit."
The U.S. government's stockpile in now ZERO? Wow!
PAAS was up over 6% yesterday on volume that is 600% over average volume for the shares. Right now it's up another 5.6%, and today's volume will exceed yesterday's.
From Forbes.com:
"Last week, the top money managers at Marketocracy.com, the M100, took refuge in silver. Four of the top ten stock purchases were in silver stocks. One silver stock on the buy list is Lima, Peru-based Compania de Minas Buenaventura. BVN mines silver, gold and other metals in Peru. For the quarter ending in March, its revenues rose 26% to $44.2 million. The stock, which trades around $30 per share, has been on an upward trend since March and is up 16% over the past 52 weeks. The company has a p/e of 12, much lower than the average p/e of 44 for the gold and silver sector, making it attractive."