Silver extended its rally to close at $39.71 per ounce, marking a fresh multi-year high just days after the U.S. added the metal to its list of critical minerals. The designation instantly reframed how traders and policymakers view silver. It is not just an industrial input for solar panels and electronics, but also a material that now sits squarely at the center of the geopolitical chessboard.
Year-to-date, silver has surged more than 37%, recently outperforming gold. For seasoned natural resource investors like Rick Rule, the weakening of the gold-to-silver ratio signals the arrival of the next phase of the commodity bull market – characterized by higher volatility.
Citigroup‘s strategist Tom Mulqueen and his team argue that U.S. silver premiums are “underpricing tariff risk,” currently standing at just a 2–3% premium versus ex-U.S. pricing. In last week’s note, Mulqueen warned that such narrow spreads ignore the possibility of Section 232 tariffs, which could reach as high as 50% on critical imports.
If Washington moves decisively, the repricing could be sharp and disorderly. For silver specifically, Mulqueen sees the tariff review as …