“Oops! We’re a Major Silver Producer Now”

When mining superintendent Marcus Daly arrived in Butte, Montana in the late 1870s to evaluate a cluster of silver prospects, it was a mundane business trip— the mad western gold rush was over by then.

The area was known for its patchy silver veins, and Daly’s job was to decide whether there were still any mines worth buying.

All the ‘experts’ thought the boom was over. Gold and silver had fallen out of favor… and mines were selling for less than the value of the dirt.

So when Marcus Daly went underground at a modest site called the Anaconda, he noticed the ore didn’t look like a typical silver deposit… and that something much bigger was hiding below.

Daly pushed for the property’s purchase—about a $30,000 which would be about $1 million today. His reasoning? Beneath the silver veins, Daly had spotted a massive copper system.

The timing couldn’t have been better for a nation racing into an industrial age.

Telegraph lines, electrical wiring, motors, early power systems—America was devouring copper as fast as anyone could pull it out of the ground. And Daly’s discovery pushed the Anaconda operation from a forgettable silver claim into one of the engines of American industrial growth.

For years, that copper carried what became the Anaconda Copper Mining Company.

Output scaled, profits climbed, and Butte became synonymous with industrial metal.

But the silver never went away. As miners pulled the copper out of the ground, they were also extracting silver… which was sort of ‘in the way’ of the copper.

At first the silver was just an afterthought; Anaconda was a copper company, plain and simple. They just happened to mine some silver, almost begrudgingly, as an afterthought. And throughout the early 20th century and the Roaring 20s, nobody paid attention.

Then the Great Depression hit.

Copper demand—and prices—collapsed almost overnight as factories slowed, construction stalled, and electrical projects were shelved indefinitely.

Anaconda took a beating like everyone else—but it didn’t fold.

The “accidental” silver kept generating revenue even as the industrial economy stalled… and that silver revenue kept Anaconda alive when competitors were going out of business left and right.

It gave the company the diversification it needed to survive the worst phases of the worst commodity cycle — and stay standing when others didn’t.

This is far from an isolated incident—the mining industry is no stranger to these necessary pivots.

And it’s also not just a quirky footnote—it’s the kind of setup that gives investors a chance to buy into something most investors write-off.

For example, the latest edition of our premium investment research newsletter featured a company that ordinarily mines a critical industrial metal—one that’s necessary for all modern technology.

Funny thing is, this company also just happens to produce gold and silver.

They never set out to be precious metals miners. In fact, the company has been extremely successful in its core industrial metal business.

But with gold and silver prices hovering near all-time highs, the company is now minting profits from precious metals. Revenue is through the roof, but shareholders of the business are basically getting all of it for free.

That’s because, right now, the company’s stock is trading at a fairly low multiple JUST based on its industrial mining revenue… which means the market is valuing all the gold and silver production at zero. That’s completely absurd.

Overall this company trades at just FOUR times earnings. At that valuation, even if it were just an industrial producer, it would still be undervalued.

But it also produces enough silver to be close to a top 10 producer in the world.

There’s no rational reason for this business to be selling for such a cheap price. Yet the recent selloff in gold and silver prices only made it cheaper. Some mining companies fell 30%, even though they’re still raking in record profits.

Now is a great time to check out our investment research newsletter, The 4th Pillar, as we’re offering a limited time discount. Click here to learn more.

Source

Simon Black is an international investor, entrepreneur and permanent traveler. His daily letter is both educational and entertaining, and we suggest that those who want unbiased, actionable information about global opportunities sign up for Sovereign Man’s free, actionable newsletter at http://www.SovereignMan.com.

From Simon Black of SovereignMan.com

Source: https://www.schiffsovereign.com/trends/oops-were-a-major-silver-producer-now-153915/