Well, it’s not exactly true, but its almost the same cost as dirt, according to Mike Maloney. The long-time gold proponent and investor remains very bullish on long-term silver prices. Maloney continues to believe owning gold and silver will help during the next big crisis.

Maloney recommends watching How its made Silver bullion, a video describing the costly and lengthy process of mining and refining silver.

According to the video, even after the mining company produces a bar of silver, it finally,

“…sells the bars to a refinery for processing into industrial-grade silver.”

The process is onerous, to say the least.

Maloney Points to the CPM Silver Yearbook

According to the CPM Group,

“Silver all-in sustaining cash costs for the 90th percentile of primary silver production seems to be around the $15 mark.”

Coincidentally, this is the exact price silver was trading for today. Silver and gold were falling hard Thursday as the dollar gained strength.

silver prices fall to $15 per ounce

Maloney predicts that if the price goes down, certain mines will close, dropping supply and resulting in a price spike.

Finally, Mike believes,

“The gold-silver ratio will change vastly, and silver will outperform gold vastly.”

And that,

“The reason central banks are accumulating so much gold right now, and the reason it has been redesignated to a Tier 1 asset is simply because they are getting ready for the next big crisis. And, they want to be in a position where they can survive the next big crisis.”

It all depends, according to Maloney,

“Gold and silver having some monetary demand. People rushing back toward them. And I don’t think that day is too far in the future.”