Silver Supply Squeeze and Low Prices Create a Bullish Opportunity for Well-Positioned Junior Miners

Despite the silver supply getting squeezed, silver is at a multi-year low, and for smart investors this could be the perfect time to jump back into the market.

Here’s what the precious metal did in 2021:

• Global demand surged 19% to hit its highest level since 2015 
• Demand grew in every category at the same time (first time since 1997)
• Industrial demand grew the most – up 9% – to an all-time high

The silver supply also suffered its first deficit since 2015 and its most significant shortage in over a decade.¹

What’s the silver market forecast for this year?

Global demand is expected to reach a record high of 1.112 billion ounces.²

That’s a 5% increase over last year.

Industrial demand is expected to rise 6% to set another new record high.³

That growth would push the silver market into another deficit…

…this time being 38% larger than last year.⁴

Another major factor in the silver squeeze is falling mine supply – down 8.5% between 2016 and 2021 – which is expected to provide long-term price support for silver.⁵

With demand growing in every category, silver has a pivotal role in everything from traditional industry to green tech, jewelry and safe haven investment.

Copper is also proving to be a very hot commodity right now and demand is expected to double by 2035 for the same reasons as silver – green energy like EVs and solar power rely on it.⁶

In fact, the copper supply shortage could completely derail the clean energy transition.

The silver and copper supply squeezes are great news for investors interested in junior mining companies with lots of stock price upside potential.

Especially if the company in question could be on the brink of making a world-class discovery.

Just look at how some of the great mining discoveries of the past led to significant stock gains.

Great Bear Resources’ major gold discovery led to its stock going up over 56x before a $1.1-billion-dollar buyout by Kinross.⁷ 

Vizsla Silver’s major silver discovery caused its shares to shoot up 68% in a single day and continue to rise from there.⁸ 

Filo Mining’s major copper and gold discovery and ongoing expansion of the project’s mineral potential made the stock rocket up by 895% from January 1, 2021 to now.⁹

But how do you spot a junior mining company that could be on the brink of making a world-class discovery?

Look for a company with a team that’s pulled off big discoveries and buyouts before and that’s once again chalking up stand-out exploration results in a world-class region.

A perfect example is the emerging Tier One Silver Inc. (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF).

High Grades, Proven Team & Trading Near All-Time Lows

Tier One Silver Inc. (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) is a Canada-based junior pursuing world-class silver, gold and base metal discoveries in Peru. 

Tier One Silver hosts high-grade silver surface results over a 20 square km area at Curibaya. This phenomenon has extended to drill holes in the first drill program – some of the channel sample highlights include 20 meters (m) of 242.7 g/t Ag, 0.71 g/t Au, 11 m of 232.1 g/t Ag, 1.61 g/t Au, 9 m of 409 g/t Ag, 0.41 g/t Au and 2 m of 1,736.5 g/t Ag, 1.61 g/t Au.¹⁰

But it’s not just a silver opportunity at Curibaya, recent evidence in the company’s exploration indicates a large-scale copper porphyry system may be beneath the high-grade silver. The property is in close proximity to some of the largest copper mines globally. 

The implications for a copper discovery combined with the silver system at Curibaya could be a game changer. And the company has only explored less than 20% of the property.

The company’s Curibaya project seems to be developing into an incredible story. During the company’s initial rock sample campaign, they had 70+ rock samples over 1,000 g/t silver over a 4 by 5 square kilometer area. Drilling produced +1000 g/t high-grade silver results over 1.5 meters and also pointed to the potential for a copper deposit.¹²

That means investors have the potential to benefit from both a silver swing and a copper swing within this one project.

It may be one of the reasons that some of the biggest mining players in the area have staked land around the Curibaya property and taken an interest in their projects. It’s becoming clear that Tier One Silver may be onto something.

The company has initiated its second phase of exploration,  and plans to commence a second phase of drilling, when it will not only drill test its best silver targets on the property so far, but also test to see if there may be a copper system underlying the precious metals identified closer to the surface.

Behind it all is a proven team with multiple past successes of discovering and monetizing world-class deposits.¹¹

And they’re hungry to do it again. 

They’ve pulled together a technical team with a level of major mining expertise that’s rare to find in a junior company (more on that later).

They’ve continued to demonstrate their ability to raise capital in good and bad markets, with recent raises including:

• C$13.45 million closed on March 2, 2021¹²
• C$6.18 million completed on June 16, 2022¹³
  

Better yet, Tier One Silver (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) represents what could be an exciting opportunity for investors. The stock is trading at some of its lowest points to date (around 30-some cents due to recent market conditions) despite having added tremendous value since its initial raise at $1.00. 

The company is also at a major inflection point with several significant catalysts expected in the near-term (more on that coming up too).

Add both the silver supply squeeze and the impending copper deficit, you have an opportunity that has the potential to really elevate Tier One Silver’s (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) to a new level.

And we haven’t even mentioned the global solar panel market, which is expected to have a CAGR of over 25% each year from now until 2028,¹⁴ and each solar panel contains 20 grams of silver, as it’s still the best conductor of electricity.¹⁵ We can expect immense silver demand from the solar sector alone.

Major financial institutions are calling for a +20% rally in the price of silver by the end of this year.¹⁶

Bank of America still sees the gold price hitting record highs and the silver price pushing to $30.¹⁷

Silver is the ‘perfect commodity’ as it carries all the known qualities of investing in gold, but holds all the use cases of copper.

Curibaya Project: Building on High-Grade Drill Results

When Tier One Silver’s (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) investor presentation says “On the Edge of a World-Class Discovery”, the company is talking about its 100% owned Curibaya project for good reasons:

• Large scale (~16,800 hectares; ~41,513 acres)
• +1000g/t silver grades demonstrated on surface and subsurface
• Multiple structures with high-grade results and strike length yet to be tested 
• Exceptional access to infrastructure: road, highway, port, airport (see map below)

The project is also located in a copper porphyry belt that hosts some of Peru’s largest porphyry deposits, including Freeport McMoRan’s Cerro Verde deposit, Southern Copper’s Cuajone and Toquepala deposits, and Anglo American’s Quellaveco deposit.¹⁸

The Tier One Silver (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) team is actively advancing the project, as you can see from the timeline below:

• June – December, 2021 completed Phase 1 of drilling with drill result highlights including 1 meter of 1,431 g/t silver and 1.5 meters of 1,129 g/t silver 
• Mar. 2022: Announced Phase 2 exploration & drill program plans (2,000-4,000 meters) focusing on expanding high-grade intercepts drilled in Phase I¹⁹
• June 2022: Restarted exploration work²⁰ with a focus on both the high-grade silver and the potential for a copper porphyry deposit
  
• Aug. 2022: Received drill permit for additional drilling (up to 200 holes from up to 20 new drill platforms)²¹ that allows them to target the Cambaya corridor, which, based on sampling to date, hosts the best silver targets on the entire property.

Channel Sampling Highlights from Exploration to Date

Tier One Silver’s (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) President and CEO, Peter Dembicki, couldn’t have summed up the Curibaya project better when he said, “This is a huge once in a lifetime opportunity.”²²

So be sure to keep a close eye on how the news from the phase 2 drilling program could affect the stock’s price.

The Potential of Major Discoveries to Create Serious Upside

Take a junior mining stock that still has lots of upside potential, then add in the catalyst of a major mineral discovery, and the potential to increase the stock’s price can be astounding.

Great Bear Resources picked up its Red Lake Dixie Project from Newmont Mining in 2017. The company made multiple, large, high-grade gold discoveries near the surface. Without even releasing a resource calculation,²³ the stock went up over 56x before Kinross bought the company out for a cool $1.1 billion.²⁴

Vizsla Silver made a major silver discovery in Mexico in mid-2020, including 8.2 meters at 1,544 g/t silver-equivalent (Ag-eq) and 2 meters at 3,348 g/t Ag-eq.²⁵ The company’s shares shot up 68% in one day and kept rising. A little over a month later it raised $30M and billionaire Eric Sprott took a $10M stake.²⁶

Filo Mining hit copper and gold big time in 2021. By January 2022, the company reported one of the top silver intercepts globally in the past decade.²⁷ The project now has an Indicated Resource of 147 million ounces of silver.²⁸ The stock responded by shooting up by 895% from January 1, 2021 to now.

The table below outlines even more examples.

Tier One Silver (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) and its Curibaya project’s “once in a lifetime opportunity” gives the company and its investors the potential to witness similar wins.

Major Industry Experts with Strong Track Record of Success

Junior mining exploration companies are only as valuable as the strength of their people…

… yet another factor that makes Tier One Silver (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) stand out.

The company’s Chair, Ivan Bebek, has over 20 years of experience in financing, foreign negotiations and acquisitions in the mineral exploration industry. He gets capital markets. 

He’s also been behind big discoveries and big buyouts.

He was the President, CEO and co-founder of Cayden Resources, which sold to Agnico Eagle Mines for $205M in 2014²⁹ during possibly one of the worst mining markets in recent history for a 5x return.

Bebek also co-founded Keegan Resources prior to Cayden in West Africa and had a significant 18x return for shareholders as an exit.

Stellar track records like that attract investors and other industry experts. Just look at what Tier One Silver’s (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) President and CEO, Peter Dembicki, said:

“I wouldn’t have left a successful career after 10 years at the largest investment firm in the country to go with a mediocre project and to go with a mediocre team.”³⁰

That includes its exceptional and multidisciplinary technical team: 

• Michael Henrichsen, Chief Geologist, former global structural geologist at Newmont
• Christian Rios, SVP of Exploration, integral in discovering two major silver deposits in Peru with Bear Creek Mining 

Strategically Located in Peru’s World-Class Mining District

You only need to know 7 things to understand why Tier One Silver’s (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) Peru-based projects are in an ideal mining jurisdiction:

1. Continuous economic and political support since the early 1990s
2. One of Latin America’s fastest-growing economies
3. Mining is Peru’s dominant economic sector³¹
4. World’s largest reserves of silver³²
5. World’s second largest producer of silver
6. World’s second largest producer of copper³³
7. World’s 6th largest producer of gold³⁴

“Peru is a global leader in the mining industry,
which makes it a natural choice for international investors.”
– EY: Peru’s Mining & Metals Investment Guide 2022/2023

Second Silver Project with Exceptional Silver Grades

As if Tier One Silver’s (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) story wasn’t good enough already, this company is also starting to bring its second project to the market’s attention.

Here’s a quick overview of the Hurricane project’s advantages:

• Option for 100% ownership
• Large scale district (~30,000 hectares; ~74,131 acres)
• Project and region within Peru are highly underexplored
• Exceptional copper, nickel, and cobalt grades from historical drill results
• Excellent infrastructure: road access, close to power lines; 66 km/41 miles to nearby city
• Social permit acquired for 2 high priority targets

Historical work was completed by the former operator from 2009 to 2010 on the Ñañohuayco and San Cipriano prospects at the Hurricane Silver project, including surface sampling, ground-based geophysical surveys and an initial drill campaign. 

Some of the highlights from the 10-hole 1,061m historical drill program at Ñañohuayco included: 14 meters of 2.59% copper, 0.62% nickel, 311 g/t cobalt, 0.3 g/t platinum and 0.55 g/t palladium.³⁵ 

These results were nothing short of spectacular, and put the Hurricane project on the map as the only known copper nickel exploration play in Peru!

And that’s not all, first pass reconnaissance channel sampling by the company found 5 mineralized vein corridors with exceptional silver grades,³⁶ including:

• 6 meters of 375.1 g/t silver equivalent (AgEq) (239 g/t Ag, 1.21% Cu, 0.34% Pb, 0.15% Zn)
• 4 meters of 441.7 g/t AgEq (234.7 g/t Ag, 1.98% Cu, 0.13% Pb, 0.29% Zn)
• 1 meter of 860.4 g/t AgEq (605 g/t Ag, 0.26% Cu, 5.79% Pb, 0.21% Zn)

High-Grade Silver Results from Surface Exploration Work in the Areas with Community Support

This early-stage project only adds to Tier One Silver’s (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) overall valuation and potential upside.

Exciting Pipeline of Catalysts

Now Tier One Silver (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) is heading into the fall of 2022 with the following plans to advance its two projects and continue increasing shareholder value and confidence:

Those efforts should spin out lots of news that could create an inflection point for the company’s stock…

…especially since Tier One Silver’s (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) stock price shows a strong correlation with the silver price.

Put it all together and it could create an opportunity for Tier One Silver’s (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) stock price to elevate to a whole new level.

Exceptional Team with Winning Track Record

We’ve already had a look at some of Tier One Silver’s (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) experienced team members. Here’s a bit more background.

Now that you know Tier One Silver’s (TSXV:TSLV) (OTCQB:TSLVF) potential, stay tuned as this company’s story develops.

The second half of 2022 could be big for Tier One as it advances both of its projects, so watch for upcoming news releases. They could be game-changers for the company’s stock and investors.

As always, do your due diligence. And make sure to click here to sign up for the company’s newsletter to stay current on Tier One’s latest news and results.

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