Interesting article from the Wall St Journal on the US military investigating widening the range of strategic raw materials it stockpiles. The article notes "The Defense Department holds in government warehouses a limited number of critical materials—such as cobalt, tin and zinc". Whilst this is sensible, as far as I know none of these elements are in short supply or geographically restricted.
What the article fails to mention is silver. The US used to have the the world's largest silver stockpile for the very reason it was strategic to waging modern warfare. In fact the Manhattan Project would not have been possible without the use of 4.7mil oz of silver to make super magnets and busbars. (Read the story here) In more recent times silver has been used in silver-zinc batteries, electrical wiring and solder to such an extent a single cruise missile may contain up to 15 kg of silver. But in the wisdom only the US Military could posses the whole stockpile was transferred to the treasury and then over time all of the stockpile was made it's way onto the open market.
This story is worth watching over the coming year to see if the US Military continues with a "just in time delivery" method for silver purchases or if they re-add silver to the strategic stockpiles. Maybe even they will get around to reading the USGS report on silver being most likely the first element in the periodic table to become extinct. (Read the story here) One can only guess what the silver price will go to if the US Military wades into the incredibly small silver market with a checkbook backed by Uncle Ben's printing press.
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