Now, I’ve seen a thing or two in my time, from the muddy banks of the Mississippi to the wild, woolly, and mostly-full-of-lies silver rushes out West. The talk of riches—it’s like a siren’s song, ain’t it? It’ll make a man forget his grammar, his good sense, and sometimes his very trousers. The world is full of fellows who’d sell you a gold brick made of brass, and another sort who’ll show you a hole in the ground and swear it’s a direct-to-Heaven express line for your pocketbook.
And so it is, that a body must approach a matter of finance with a mind as clear as a bottle of good whiskey before the cork’s been pulled. And I’ve been looking at this Apollo Silver business, and it’s a curious thing, a right proper puzzle for a man who’s seen a few. It ain’t about the grand promises of a bonanza that’ll make you the next Rockefeller, a-building libraries and a-dressing in finery. No sir. That kind of talk is for the greenhorns and the giddy.
What’s to be said for Apollo is a different tune entirely. It’s a calm, measured sort of melody, like a riverboat gliding on a Sunday afternoon. You see, they’ve got this Calico project out in California, and another one, Cinco de Mayo, down in Mexico. And when they speak of it, they ain’t waving their arms about or using words too big for their boots. They’re talking about a mineral resource. And not just a vague promise, but numbers that have been “measured,” “indicated,” and “inferred.” That’s the part that sticks to a man’s ribs like a good meal.
And there’s history to back it up, too. The Calico district ain’t some new-fangled idea; it’s a place where they’ve been pulling silver from the earth for a long spell. Back in 1881, after a big discovery, Calico became a real humdinger of a town. It was a place that produced millions of dollars in silver over a dozen years, a wild and colorful place that drew in folks from all over the globe, a town with a name that came right from the “calico-colored” mountains themselves. A fella by the name of Walter Knott, who had a berry farm and a fondness for history, even went and restored the old place after it became a ghost town. So, the ground there, it’s got a reputation.
And in that reputable ground, they’ve got a proper accounting. The Calico project is said to hold a mighty 110 million ounces of silver in the “Measured and Indicated” category, which is a powerful lot of the shiny stuff. And on top of that, there’s another 51 million ounces of silver in the “Inferred” category. That’s a sum a body can get his head around.
Now, as for the Cinco de Mayo project down in Chihuahua, Mexico, well, that region is a whole other book of stories. Mexico’s got a history with silver that goes back centuries, and a fella who knows a thing or two about rocks will tell you that the very geology of the area is famous for these “carbonate replacement deposits,” the kind that have been responsible for a good 40% of all the silver ever pulled out of the ground in that country. And while their report on this project is of a historical nature, it still speaks to a substantial resource, with a historical estimate of 52.7 million ounces of silver in the “Inferred” category. It’s a testament to the region’s long-standing character.
Now, I’ve seen men go bust on a whim, throwing their money at some fly-by-night scheme with a map that had more flourishes than truth. But this here, this is a matter of geography and common sense. It’s in places where they’ve been digging silver for a hundred years, and where the land itself seems to say, “Why yes, there’s more where that came from.” And the folks in charge—they’ve got a long-standing acquaintance with the business of pulling wealth from the earth, not just from the pockets of others.
So, a man must ask himself, what’s the virtue in this? The virtue is in the lack of fancy. It’s a bet on what’s already there, not what might be. It’s the difference between a high-stakes poker game where you might lose your shirt, and a man walking into a store to buy a new one. It ain’t a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s a slow, deliberate trundle down the road of reason. And in a world where every huckster with a shovel has a story to tell, a story about a resource measured and counted is a mighty comfortable thing to rest your hat on.
(Please note: Apollo Silver is a sponsor of Proven And Probable, and we are biased.)
The program for the next seminar on 23rd August 2025 is linked here.
This is a friendly reminder that seats for Friday dinner with Albert Lu are limited. Only the first eighty people who register will be invited. Of course, the price of the ticket will increase as the event date approaches.
If you are already registered, I will email you in two weeks to ask if you will be attending the Friday dinner with Albert Lu.
You may use coupon code PPC2025 for a 10% discount.
While I quite liked our usual room for the seminar, we had audio problems there. So, the new location will be a couple of blocks away. Please make a note of the seminar room location from the webpage.
The playlists of all the past Capitalism & Morality seminars are linked here.
(Bloomberg) — Platinum surged to its highest level since 2014 as supply concerns and a wave of speculative buying jolted the market.
The precious metal surged as much as 4.6%, while palladium was up more than 5% at one point. Gold edged higher as investors waited for clearer signs that Israel-Iran tensions won’t spill over again, and for more certainty on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate path.
“The recent surge in Chinese investment and jewelry replacement is shining a spotlight on platinum’s supply deficit,” said Justin Lin, an analyst at Global X ETFs. “Palladium and platinum are intrinsically linked as they can be substituted for one another for use in autocatalysts depending on relative prices, so we can expect some positive momentum in palladium off of platinum’s rally.”
The dominant platinum spot market in London and Zurich has shown signs of tightness for months, after approximately half a million ounces surged into US warehouses, spurred by a lucrative arbitrage and fear of tariffs.
Forward prices for platinum are now trading well below spot, a situation known as backwardation, which indicates tight market conditions. The implied cost of borrowing the metal is also still high, at an annualized rate of roughly 13% for a one-month lease, well above the usual rate of close to zero.
Platinum surged 3.4% to $1,400.75 an ounce as of 11:25 a.m. in London and palladium jumped 2.4% to $1,093.46. Gold rose 0.2% to $3,339.20 and silver added 1%. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index declined 0.5%.