Although the silver price has risen by around 13% since the beginning of the year, the precious and industrial metal still lags significantly behind the gold price, which gained almost 27% in value over the same period. Given the global uncertainty in the stock and financial markets, investors still view the yellow metal as the safe haven. Nevertheless, experts at the Silver Institute believe that silver will perform well, as robust industrial demand meets declining supply.

The Silver Institute released its 2025 Silver Survey yesterday, which predicts that the precious metal will show a supply deficit for the fifth consecutive year on an annual basis – albeit the lowest in the past four years. The report estimates the deficit in the silver market at 117 million ounces. It anticipates a slight decrease in demand to 1.148 billion ounces, while total supply is expected to increase by 1.5% due to rising mine production.

The report, compiled by analysts at Metals Focus, further states that industrial demand for silver in 2025 will remain almost unchanged at approximately 677.4 million ounces. Demand from the electrical and electronics sectors is expected to increase by only 1%, while growth in the automotive, power grids, and consumer electronics sectors is likely to offset a decline in demand from the solar energy sector.

Balance in the Silver Market Still Far Off

One reason for the recent volatility in the silver price and its inability to keep pace with gold is likely the concerns about global economic development. Accordingly, it currently takes just over 100 ounces of silver to purchase one ounce of gold. This puts the so-called Gold Silver Ratio near a five-year high.

However, Metals Focus, as recently explained to the industry service KitcoNews, is convinced that even after five consecutive deficits, the silver market is still far from reaching equilibrium. Consequently, the experts expect several more deficit years to follow, supporting and driving up the silver price. Although some short-term price fluctuations are to be expected.

In any case, Metals Focus does not believe that demand would completely collapse – even in a possible recession. The silver market is too diversified for that. In particular, the analysts expect investment demand to recover.

Therefore, the experts generally assume that there is further upside potential for the silver price. They are confident that silver will reach new cycle highs in the coming weeks and rise to a level that has not been observed for years. In the long term, they even believe that the silver price will catch up with the gold price. However, this will not happen in 2025.

Is It Now Time for Silver Explorers?

In light of these prospects, we at Goldinvest.de have had several promising silver explorers on our watch list – some for quite some time. With Silver47 Exploration (Frankfurt A408EQ / TSXV AGA) and Summa Silver (Frankfurt A2P4EE / TSXV SSVR), two of these companies already have considerable resources, which they aim to expand significantly. Silver47 Exploration, in particular, shows ambition with an exploration target of 1 billion ounces of silver equivalent.

Terra Balcanica Resources (Frankfurt A40DA5 / CSE TERA) is not quite as far along. However, according to their own statement, CEO Aleksandar Miskovic’s company has already presented some world-class drilling results on its flagship project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and recently also attracted attention with high antimony contents. CEO Miskovic therefore wants to bring the Viogor Zanik project to an initial resource estimate as quickly as possible. Another drilling program is set to begin shortly.

Cerro de Pasco Resources (Frankfurt A2N7XK / TSXV CDPR) also potentially has enormous quantities of silver, among other metals, in the giant Quiulacocha tailings project in Peru, which they were able to impressively substantiate with an initial drilling program from last year. In light of this success, another extensive drilling campaign is planned for the coming months.