Silver Sets Record as Market Awaits AMEX Fund By Business Editors (c) 2006 Business Wire March 24, 2006, 10:05AM
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 2006--Silver rose 20 cents an ounce Thursday, closing at $10.69, a new 24-year high, topping the earlier 22-year high of $10.50 following the Securities and Exchange Commission granting the American Stock Exchange approval for a new exchange-listed silver fund.
Demand was so strong Thursday gold investors were trading out positions in London to buy into silver in anticipation of a new silver fund that trades like a stock.
The American Stock Exchange got approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 22 to list a silver exchange-traded fund for the first time, enabling investors to trade without buying the precious metal or futures. The introduction of a gold fund on the New York Stock Exchange in 2004 helped boost prices to a 25-year high last month.
John Reade, an analyst with London-based UBS AG, said in an e-mailed note on March 22, "Silver may rise to as high as $11 in the next few days."
Reade isn't the only one looking to profit from higher silver prices. In Reno, Nevada, Enviro-Ag company Itronics, Inc. (OTCBB:ITRO) recently announced that it had tripled silver recovery capacity to 60,000 ounces. Itronics processes photochemicals, removing the heavy metals and manufacturing pure, 5-ounce silver bars, though that's been a byproduct of production of its core business, an environmentally friendly liquid fertilizer called GOLD n' GRO.
But Itronics' plant in North Reno recently got a $3 million upgrade and its capacity was doubled as a result. Digging back into Itronics' filings, in the March 31, 2005, quarterly report it states that Itronics has been developing regents as an alternative to traditional cyanide leaching used in processing silver and gold ore, or solids, for recovery. The company's recent plant developments now set the stage for Itronics to recover silver commercially. Itronics could see its raw material source grow dramatically and, with it, a more efficient operation.
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