U.S. Silver Secondary Production

THE DIRECT ANSWER

The 2025 estimate is near the recent baseline, far below the 1969 peak

USGS estimates 1,000 metric tons of U.S. secondary silver refinery production in 2025, up 4.7% from 955 tonnes in 2024 and close to the 2021–2025 average of 1020.6 tonnes. The accepted historical series reaches its maximum at 2,480 tonnes in 1969.

That comparison describes annual metal output. It does not show why material entered the recycling stream, where scrap originated, how much eligible scrap was discarded, or what share was collected. Those are different questions requiring different denominators and chain-of-custody evidence.

DEFINITION BEFORE RATIO

New scrap and old scrap are combined in one refinery-output field

Dividing secondary output by mine production is a scale comparison between two supply flows. Dividing it by apparent consumption is also not a recycling rate because apparent consumption is not the eligible discarded-scrap pool. GoldObserve displays those comparisons only to prevent denominator confusion.

THE EDITION SEAM

One verified overlap connects the long history to the current release

The historical base is the official Silver Data Series 140 workbook, which runs through 2021. The continuation comes from the silver rows in Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026. Both files publish 908 tonnes for 2021, so GoldObserve keeps DS140 through 2021 and appends only 2022–2025 from the newer release.

The three NA observations—1900, 1995 and 1996—remain gaps. A chart that drew a straight line through them would imply observations USGS did not publish. The source also says historical values may be calculated, estimated or reported without supplying a row-level status for each year, so the download uses the more cautious label “published; row-level method not specified.”

CONTINUE THE SUPPLY RESEARCH

Change tools when the silver question changes

QUESTIONS

Silver secondary-production FAQ