---
title: "Gold Is Around $4,000, Silver Is Near $60, and Investors Are Still Miserable"
url: "https://www.readplaza.com/articles/gold-is-around-4000-silver-is-near-60-and-investors-are-still-miserable"
type: "article"
publisher: "Commodity Culture"
category: "Market Commentary"
published: "2026-08-09T18:43:00+00:00"
updated: "2026-08-12T00:14:07.716997+00:00"
reading_time_minutes: 10
---

# Gold Is Around $4,000, Silver Is Near $60, and Investors Are Still Miserable
I had Gianni Kovacevic back on Commodity Culture this week, and he made a point that I think a lot of people in the commodity space need to sit with.

If I had told you a year and a half ago that gold would be at $4,000 and silver would be around $60, most people would have been doing cartwheels.

Instead, a lot of investors are frustrated.

They expected a straight line. They expected every mining stock to go up. They expected silver to hit triple digits and never look back. Then the inevitable volatility showed up, the tourists got shaken out, and suddenly people are acting like the entire thesis is broken.

Gianni’s point is simple: we are living through the spring and summer of discontent.

The metals have moved massively higher. The broad macro case has not gone away. But people are dissatisfied because the move has not played out exactly the way they expected, or on the timeline they wanted.

That kind of frustration is usually not the end of a cycle. It is part of the cycle.

Silver pulled back exactly when it was supposed toGianni called for silver to reach triple digits and then sell off sharply. That is exactly what happened.

When silver was ripping higher, plenty of people were convinced it could never go down again. They pointed to supply deficits, industrial demand, currency debasement, central-bank buying, and the obvious structural problems in the financial system.

Those things still matter.

But markets do not go up in straight lines, especially silver.

Silver is one of the most emotional metals on the planet. It attracts true believers at the top and complete despair at the bottom. That is part of what makes it so powerful when the cycle is working, but it is also what makes it so painful when the metal needs to correct.

Gianni still likes silver long term. He believes the larger forces behind the trade remain intact, including de-dollarization, growing debt, declining confidence in fiat currencies, and continued demand for hard assets.

His view is that gold eventually heads toward $8,000–$10,000. If silver moves toward a 40-to-1 gold-to-silver ratio in that environment, he sees a path to $160–$200 silver.

That is not a short-term prediction. It is a long-term framework.

And that distinction is important.

The miners are still discounting a much lower silver priceThe interesting part of Gianni’s silver thesis is not just the metal itself. It is the disconnect between the silver price and what the mining stocks appear to be pricing in.

Silver producers are operating in a world where silver is around $60, but many of their valuations still look like they are discounting a much lower metal price.

That is the opportunity.

Gianni likes to keep a foot in two different parts of the market.

On one side, he likes producers such as First Majestic. They are volatile, they get pushed around, and they can be frustrating to own, but the underlying businesses should continue to benefit if silver remains elevated.

On the other side, he still likes early-stage drill-hole speculations.

That is where his heart is. Small market-cap companies with cash in the treasury, active exploration programs, and the potential for high-grade discoveries. Those are the names where you can lose money quickly if the drill results disappoint, but they are also where the five- and ten-baggers can come from when the geology delivers.

That barbell makes sense in a sector like silver. Own some companies with real production and cash flow, then take smaller calculated shots where a discovery can completely reprice the asset.

Gold producers are printing moneyGold is telling a similar story.

A lot of people seem disappointed in the gold sector because the miners have not moved the way they think they should have, especially considering where the gold price is sitting.

But Gianni thinks that disconnect is exactly why investors should pay attention.

He pointed to Agnico Eagle as a clean example. The company has been generating enormous cash flow in a high-gold-price environment, but the market has still treated it like gold is much lower than it actually is.

That is hard to ignore.

If gold stays around $4,000 for quarter after quarter, companies like Agnico are not just “gold plays.” They are businesses generating serious cash. Their balance sheets improve. Their reserve bases become more valuable. Their ability to return capital, buy assets, and invest in growth becomes stronger.

The market might take time to recognize it. But eventually, numbers matter.

Gianni’s view is that Agnico can keep moving higher even if gold pulls back, because the underlying business is already so strong at current prices. If gold holds around these levels or heads higher, the upside becomes even more obvious.

That is the part of the gold thesis people are missing. You do not need a fantasy price target for the producers to work. They are already operating in an extremely favorable environment.

The real bull market is bigger than one metalThe bigger macro case behind gold and silver remains the same.

Debt levels are not getting better. Governments are not suddenly becoming fiscally responsible. Central banks are still buying gold. More countries are looking for ways to settle trade outside of the US dollar. China continues to strengthen its position in the global gold market as both a producer and buyer.

Gianni sees this as a long-term de-dollarization story.

The world does not need to abandon the dollar overnight for gold to keep moving higher. It only needs to diversify around the edges. A little less demand for US assets, a little more demand for gold, a little more concern about currency risk, and a little more central-bank accumulation.

That is enough.

He also made an important point about portfolio rebalancing. Gold has become such a large percentage of some portfolios after its move higher that institutions naturally need to trim exposure. That does not mean the thesis is broken. It means the market is digesting a major move.

That is healthy.

Copper has reached a new plateauWe also spent time talking about copper, which has had a very different run from the precious metals.

Gianni has been a copper bull for years. He wrote a book about it in 2016 when copper was around $2–$2.50 per pound. He spent years making the case that the world was underestimating the importance of copper and the difficulty of bringing on new supply.

Now copper is sitting near all-time highs.

That does not mean it cannot go higher. Gianni said it is possible copper could eventually move toward $8 or even higher under the right circumstances.

But he is more cautious at these levels.

His view is that copper has established a higher plateau, somewhere in the $5.50–$6.50 range, rather than heading back to the old $3 environment. That is a major shift and it matters for companies operating in the space.

Still, China buys roughly half of the world’s copper, and China does not like paying high prices. If copper runs too far too fast, it would not be surprising to see demand slow or Chinese buyers push the market lower through strategic selling.

Gianni has sold much of his copper exposure because he sees more attractive mispricings elsewhere.

If he is going to speculate in copper now, he wants to do it through drill-hole plays where the investment is about a discovery rather than the day-to-day metal price.

Lithium may be the most mispriced sector in the marketThis was Gianni’s strongest call.

He said lithium may be the most mispriced thing on the entire global exchange.

That is a big statement, but he backs it up with a simple demand argument.

Battery demand was around 1.8 terawatt hours last year. By 2030, estimates suggest it could reach 5.7 terawatt hours. That is not a small increase. It is a massive expansion in the size of the battery market over a relatively short period of time.

For Gianni, the question is not whether lithium demand grows. It is where future lithium supply comes from.

His answer is direct lithium extraction.

DLE is one of the biggest technological shifts developing in the lithium sector. The idea is to extract lithium more efficiently, with less water, less energy, and a faster process than traditional methods. It also has the potential to produce lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide more directly.

A lot of analysts still question whether DLE can work at commercial scale.

Gianni takes the other side.

He points to companies such as SLB and Exxon, which have dedicated major technical resources to moving DLE forward. His argument is that when large energy and service companies are spending years developing and operating these technologies, investors should not dismiss the entire concept because a few analysts are skeptical.

That is where he sees a massive disconnect between the future demand picture and today’s valuations.

The phosphate trade nobody is paying attention toLithium is only part of the battery story.

Gianni is also focused on phosphate because lithium iron phosphate batteries need purified phosphoric acid. If LFP battery demand continues to grow, phosphate could become increasingly important well beyond its traditional role in fertilizer.

That is a major shift.

The key, in his view, is finding the right kind of deposit. He wants igneous phosphate deposits close to infrastructure, not just generic phosphate projects that may be dependent on fertilizer economics.

Igneous deposits can potentially produce a cleaner type of phosphate suitable for purified phosphoric acid, which is essential for LFP battery production.

That is why he sees the combination of direct lithium extraction and high-quality phosphate projects as one of the most interesting corners of the commodity market.

It is not a crowded trade yet. It is not dominating headlines. It is not what everyone is posting about on social media.

But that is often where the best opportunities begin.

Why patience still matters mostThe hardest part of being a commodity investor is understanding that a good thesis can still be painful.

Gold can be at $4,000 and the miners can still be frustrating.

Silver can be around $60 and people can still be miserable.

Copper can hit all-time highs and still be a bad place to chase momentum.

Lithium can have one of the strongest long-term demand stories in the market and still be ignored by almost everyone.

That is why Gianni’s message was bigger than any one commodity.

You need to understand where you are in the cycle. You need to know whether you are buying a great business, a great deposit, or simply a great story. You need cash available when opportunities show up. And you need enough patience to sit through the part of the cycle where everyone else loses interest.

Because if the larger commodity thesis is right, the best opportunities may not be where the crowd is looking today.

They may be sitting in the parts of the market people have already forgotten.

My readGianni mentioned several stocks during our conversation, and most of them are in the junior mining space, far outside my area of expertise and far beyond my risk tolerance. As a rule, I almost never invest in a company with a sub-$1B market cap, as I prefer to capture the overall trend to the upside in commodities, as opposed to rolling the dice on a junior hitting bonanza grade drill holes. That being said, for those with the stomach for major volatility who position-size accordingly, keeping in mind total loss of capital invested is a strong possibility when dealing with explorers, Gianni is speculating on Silver Pony, Aben Gold, and Super Copper for those respective commodities. His main suggestion for lithium exposure is LithiumBank, and although we're moving outside my circle of competence here, I have to admit recent price action after we recorded the interview certainly seems to match Gianni's bullish stance, as the stock went absolutely ballistic on the final trading day of last week, up over 25% in a single day. 

Where I do align with Gianni's investment views is Agnico Eagle, the second-largest gold producer in the world that is, in both his and my opinion (and for what it's worth, Rick Rule's opinion too), majorly undervalued at these gold prices. I hold the stock and am considering adding to my position up ahead.