This has been silver’s month. It has hit a 22-year high and has a spot price of more than $10 an ounce. The silver mining stocks have also been taking off. Peñoles, the Mexican company that is the largest silver producer in the world, has seen its stock price rise 700 per cent since the start of 2002. The silver/gold ratio seems to be breaking out of a choppy, two-year pattern, with silver taking the lead.

Silver has always been the higher beta precious metal, partly because it is not so precious and its demand is much more dependent on industrial applications. While the demand for silver film has been dropping off with the increase in digital photography, electronic and even medical applications have picked up some of the slack.