The silver price looks pretty much unstoppable right now. Spot silver in the U.S. has surged to $108 per ounce, while prices in Shanghai are trading near a record $124 per ounce, creating a $16 premium over Western prices that ranks among the widest gaps on record.
This kind of divergence does not happen in a healthy market. When regional prices drift this far apart, it usually signals growing stress in the physical silver supply chain.
Kobeissi Letter was among the first to point this out, noting that such a large premium reflects a real shortage of physical silver rather than just aggressive futures trading. In simple terms, demand for real metal is now outpacing what exchanges and dealers can easily deliver, which forces prices higher where immediate supply is required.
That shortage is now feeding directly into a second story that markets are starting to price in: mining stocks. When silver trades above $100 and physical delivery commands a premium, miners are no longer operating in a normal pricing environment.
This is where Wall Street Mav’s analysis becomes important. He starts from a very simple but powerful question: what does $108 silver actually mean for the companies that produce it.
Most silver miners operate with all-in production costs around $20 per ounce, though some are slightly higher or lower depending on the jurisdiction and project quality. At $108 silver, that leaves roughly $88 per ounce in gross margin before taxes and overhead.
After taxes and other expenses, Wall Street Mav estimates that free cash flow for many miners could land near $60 per ounce. That is a massive change compared to just one year ago, when silver traded near $30 and miners were often left with only $5 to $7 per ounce in free cash flow.
In other words, profitability has not just increased, it has multiplied. That kind of margin expansion is what turns speculative mining plays into serious cash-generating businesses.
At current prices, the numbers become eye-catching very quickly. For miners producing millions of ounces per year, that kind of margin translates into hundreds of millions in potential free cash flow annually.
Wall Street Mav highlights what this changes inside these companies. Debt can be retired quickly, dividends suddenly become realistic, share buybacks enter the conversation, and expansion plans become much easier to fund without relying on dilutive financing.
Two miners he pointed to illustrate this dynamic clearly. Aya Gold & Silver is already producing around 6 million ounces per year, and at current pricing Wall Street Mav estimates it could generate over $300 million in free cash flow during 2026, while also building its next major project, Boumadine, expected to be roughly six times larger than its first mine, Zgounder.
Silver X is another case operating in Peru, which holds the largest silver reserves on the planet. The company is producing about 1 million ounces today and plans to scale toward 6 million ounces per year, a growth profile that looks completely different when silver trades above $100.
These are not future concepts or speculative projections. They are operating businesses now being re-rated by market conditions in real time.
The story here goes beyond just silver price action. A $16 premium in Shanghai over Western prices shows that the physical market is driving price discovery again, not just futures contracts and paper trading.
At the same time, mining stocks are shifting from leverage plays into genuine cash-flow stories. That combination rarely lasts quietly, as either physical prices normalize lower or equity valuations move sharply higher to reflect the new reality.
Kobeissi Letter’s observation of record physical premiums shows that silver is no longer trading like a typical commodity. Supply pressure is real, and price divergence is the proof.
Wall Street Mav’s breakdown explains what that pressure means on the ground for miners. At $108 silver, the financial structure of these companies changes overnight.
If prices stay anywhere near these levels, the earnings numbers that follow will not look normal by any historical standard. And markets will not ignore that for long.
Read also: Why Gold and Silver Are Exploding at the Same Time – And What It Signals for Markets
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The post Silver Price Hits $108 as Mining Stocks Enter a Cash Flow Boom appeared first on CaptainAltcoin.


