Welcome to the Silver War
John Rubino

In which national interest trumps price

Silver is trending down this week.

But that’s just the paper markets discouraging long futures contract holders from standing for delivery. Ignore it, because something much bigger is happening.

China is on an epic silver buying spree.

Why now? Several reasons. For one thing, solar panels contain silver, and China’s panel exports are spiking.

Meanwhile, the following has happened:

• Silver was officially added to the U.S. List of Critical Minerals in November 2025, making access to silver an official government policy. From an AI summary: "The reclassification addresses significant supply chain vulnerabilities, as the United States imports approximately 64-80% of its silver consumption, with major reliance on Mexico and Canada. The new status unlocks federal support mechanisms, including fast-track permitting under the Fast-41 program, tax incentives, and potential strategic stockpiling to reduce dependence on foreign refining, notably by China, which controls much of the global refined supply.”
  

• China banned silver exports on January 1, 2026.
  

• As of May 1, China has restricted the sale of acids used to refine silver.

Geopolitical Squeeze

The silver market is no longer about businesses vying for inventories. Now it’s geopolitical, as major silver-producing and consuming countries act to guarantee access.

One consequence: Price is no longer the main driver of silver demand.

Put another way, welcome to the silver war.

Someone has even resurrected the Silver Guy avatar for this story:

DollarCollapse.com is managed by John Rubino, co-author, with James Turk, of The Money Bubble(DollarCollapse Press, 2014) andÊThe Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit From It (Doubleday, 2007), and author of Clean Money: Picking Winners in the Green-Tech Boom (Wiley, 2008), How to Profit from the Coming Real Estate Bust (Rodale, 2003) and Main Street, Not Wall Street (Morrow, 1998). After earning a Finance MBA from New York University, he spent the 1980s on Wall Street, as a Eurodollar trader, equity analyst and junk bond analyst. During the 1990s he was a featured columnist with TheStreet.com and a frequent contributor to Individual Investor, Online Investor, and Consumers Digest, among many other publications. He currently writes for CFA Magazine.

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