Chinese Companies Attempted to Buy Canadian Silver at Above-Market Prices Ahead of Export Restrictions

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Jan 1, 2026 - 10:59 Updated: Jan 1, 2026 - 10:55
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Chinese Companies Attempted to Buy Canadian Silver at Above-Market Prices Ahead of Export Restrictions

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Two Chinese companies contacted a Canada-based silver mining and exploration company and attempted to buy physical silver at $8 higher than its market price, days before China is set to impose export restrictions on the precious metal.

Kuya Silver CEO David Stein told Arcadia Economics on Dec. 28 that the company received two requests on Dec. 26 from Chinese firms looking to obtain physical silver. Stein said the companies offered them $83 per ounce, “which I think at the time was probably an $8 premium.”

Stein said his company produces concentrate and not physical silver, so they were not in a position to sell the silver to the firms.

“The fact that they’re calling guys like us ... maybe speaks to the panic that’s happening. They’re just calling absolutely everybody under the sun,” he said.

Stein told The Epoch Times that an Indian buyer also recently approached his company looking to buy physical silver at premiums of more than $10.

Kuya Silver operates two mines, the Bethania Silver project in Peru, and the Silver Kings Project in Northern Ontario.

In October, China’s Commerce Ministry announced it would impose new restrictions on the export of rare earth metals. Then in December, China released a list of 44 companies that would be approved to export silver under the new measures beginning in 2026.

The new policy also formally elevates silver from an ordinary commodity to a strategic material, putting its export controls under the same regulatory scheme as rare earth minerals.

In November, the United States also added silver to its nationally designated list of critical minerals.
The United States Geological Survey said in a 2025 report that U.S. mines produced 1,100 tons of silver in 2024, while Canadian mines produced 300 tons, and Chinese mines produced 3,300 tons.
The price of silver has seen a massive increase over the last month, rising from $50 in November to an all-time high of $83 on Dec. 28, before falling back to around $70. The precious metal has risen by 145 percent in 2025, marking its best year since 1979.
This led to SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk remarking on X on Dec. 26: “This is not good. Silver is needed in many industrial processes.”

In addition to historically being used as currency, silver also has industrial applications such as in solar panels, electric vehicles, batteries, and advanced military equipment such as missiles and drones. The majority of silver is produced as a byproduct of copper and lead-zinc mines.

Gold prices rose by about 68 percent in 2025, and the metal is also on pace for its best year since 1979. Canada is the only G7 nation that does not hold at least 100 tonnes of gold in its official reserves, as the Finance Department sold off the last of its reserves in 2016 to instead invest in “financial assets that are easily tradable and that have deep markets of buyers and sellers.”
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