Investing

INTEREST IN SILVER & SILVER STANDARD RESOURCES (SSRI, SSO.V)

THE CASE FOR SILVER

My interest in silver was piqued by a variety of factors:

• Jim Rogers introduced me to the idea that commodities are likely the play for the next bull market
• Multiple sources (especially the bear case library ) have introduced me to the idea that there can be no significant bull market in stocks from current valuation levels
• Ted Butler's excellent work on the supply and demand for silver and the 15+ years of deficits that have drawn inventories down to the point where at most 1-2 years of demand can be provided from inventories and then there will be a real deficit.
• The value of silver as a historical inflation hedge and a currency neutral way to store value (if all currencies are depreciating through inflation their relative valuations can remain constant but every one is losing their purchasing power. That is the situation that we basically see today)

Given these factors which others describe much better than I ever could, I decided to investigate the silver pure plays to determine which one was most undervalued and would provide the most upside to a silver move, based on their resource base. Consider these few quotes on the supply and demand situation of silver before I move on to the stock specifics:

"...And this deficit-consumption pattern has persisted, not for just the past twenty years, but for the past 60 years. Since the start of World War II, the world has consumed more silver than it has produced. Every year, for 60 years, the world has had to dip into silver inventories and reserves, because it can only physically consume that which physically exists. It doesn't matter if the reserves and inventories come from the U.S. Government's formerly vast holdings, or from the forks and knives melted twenty years ago. We need previously produced inventory to balance the demand for silver. Once these inventories are depleted, they can't be depleted any more. Silver reserves do not replenish themselves in a deficit. They eventually run out for good. Inventories can only grow when there is a surplus of current production over current consumption. The documented silver drawdown over the past 60 years proves there has been no surplus."

"...Silver alone, of all the investment items in our world, has less total quantity in existence every single day. That's something you're just going to have to think about for a moment, because it is so extraordinary and unusual. Of all the usual investment possibilities, only silver is shrinking in total supply. The amount of common stock and bond issues and real estate and gold in existence is at an all-time historic high. "

"...world silver inventories are at a low point not seen in hundreds of years, since before the United States was formed as a country"

SILVER STANDARD RESOURCES (SSRI)

After looking at the alternatives I established that Silver Standard Resources (SSRI on the NASDAQ and SSO.V on the Toronto venture exchange) met both requirements. Worst case it is fairly valued and best case even without a move in silver it could be 50% undervalued.

As of their most recent filings they have 403.5 M Oz of silver in the measured & indicated category (you can find a more detailed explanation of these terms in their SEC filings) and 446.5 M Oz of silver in the inferred category. Today Silver Standard are not actually mining any silver and have 14+ projects in states from initial exploration to final feasibility studies. They do not indicate what the eventual profit per oz of silver might be, so many assumptions are required. However even the most conservative assumptions lead to a fairly valued stock with around 4:1 leverage to the price of silver. That is a 25% rise in the price of silver would lead to a 100% rise in the price of SSRI, assuming that $6.25 is the breakeven price averaged across all of their reserves.

Because there is so much uncertainty in the breakeven point, the future price of silver and the percentage of measured, indicated and inferred resource that can actually be mined it is worth undertaking some sensitivity analysis to different assumptions.

Let me take a moment to explain how the model works. There are two components, the call option component and the profit per oz component. If we start by imagining that SSRI simply has some number of oz of silver sitting in a vault that they paid $6.25 for. In the most conservative case the number of ounces is 411.5 M oz (see table below). Each of these ounces of silver may be said to be worth zero dollars of profit if today's silver prices was $6.25, as we purchased the silver for $6.25. But that would be ignoring the built in call option. If you are committed to holding that silver for 5 years, you could sell a call option on it all at around $1.23 per oz. That translates to $11.09 per share for SSRI assuming that their silver was all sitting in a vault and was purchased at today's silver price (whatever that may be, i.e. no profit on the silver). Now SSRI has not sold call options to receive the $1.23 but that is the price that the market places on the fact that the volatility of silver could lead to a substantially higher price (this is the value of the call). We add that to the profit that SSRI will make from mining silver at some price and selling that silver for some higher price, the profit per oz, to get the total value per oz. In the most conservative case that I outline with $6.25 silver there is no profit per oz. In the most aggressive case that I outline, with $12 silver there is $6.25 per oz added to the $1.23 call option. A cursory examination of this approach may make you think that I have double counted the option and the profit per oz. (I'm happy to expand on this if you can show that I'm wrong, but I've given this a lot of thought. My email address is at the bottom of the page. )

	Most conservative	Conservative	Medium	Aggressive
Measured	80%	90%	90%	100%
Indicated	60%	80%	80%	100%
Inferred	25%	50%	60%	100%
Breakeven Silver Price	$6.25	$6.00	$5.75	$5.75
Silver @ $6.25	$11.09	$18.31	$22.77	$31.29
Silver @ $8	$25.05	$37.81	$43.78	$60.12
Silver @ $12	$56.95	$82.38	$91.81	$126.01

The top half of the table shows the percentage of the resources at each confidence level that is eventually mined, the bottom half shows the calculated price per share as a result.

So how aggressive is the aggressive analysis. Consider that they have grown their resources on average each year by around 40% and every two years by over 100%. By not taking growth in resources into account it seems reasonable that any losses of measured, indicated or inferred could be made up by additional resources. That said, a breakeven of $5.75 may be a little low and I like the Conservative and Medium columns most.

What is the chance that silver could go to $12? Well in the last precious metals bull market silver reached around $50 at the height of the mania. There is more silver consumed than is produced by mines because the price is too low. As we know, that which cannot go on forever eventually must end and eventually the price of silver must rise to reflect the deficit. As the silver component of many products that consume silver is very small, it is likely that the elasticity of demand will be very elastic and demand will not drop very much; that is aside from the rise in jewelry and investment demand that a sustained rise in price may bring about (though you may think a price rise would reduce investment and jewelry demand, history shows otherwise).

I haven't entertained silver above $12 but there is clearly potential for a much larger rise in the price of silver and the SSRI could easily be a ten bagger here over the next few years. Most importantly the downside risk is very low. Even at today's silver price with 100% recovery of all current measured, implied and inferred reserves the stock would be worth $23.

Remember even at today's prices there is not enough silver produced for consumption and it is taken from reserves, which are almost depleted. Supply and demand says that over the medium term the price of silver is likely to increase not decrease leading to significant appreciation potential and limited downside.