Happy Sunday, GoldBuzzers!

On Friday night, I did a 2-hour interview with a bullion industry insider who's been selling gold and silver for years. What he told me about December's demand, current wait times, and where he thinks prices are headed is something every GoldBuzz reader needs to hear.

Ok, let’s dive in!

Week in Review: Gold Catches Its Breath While Silver Takes another Wild Ride

Gold pulled back slightly on Friday, but still closed the week up almost 2%, marking its second consecutive weekly gain while hovering near record territory.

Geopolitical tensions around Iran eased after President Trump signaled he may delay military action, and with about 95% of market participants expecting the Fed to keep rates unchanged this month, the next fully priced rate cut has been pushed deeper into mid-2026.

Meanwhile, silver continues to steal the show. Despite tumbling around 4% on Friday after the US decided to refrain from imposing tariffs on critical minerals, it still gained an astonishing 12% on the week. The President's announcement also floated the idea of 'price floors' for future trade in critical minerals like silver - which, if implemented, would essentially cap your downside while leaving the upside wide open.

The gold-to-silver ratio has now dropped to around 50 - a long-watched target that illustrates how much silver is gaining ground relative to its golden cousin.

Bottom line: Gold's consolidating near all-time highs while silver continues its wild 2026 tear. Whether you're in it for the long haul or trading the volatility, precious metals aren't boring anymore.

Andrew Sleigh spent 23 years as an independent financial planner - mutual funds, pension plans, the usual. Then around 2017, he says, "things just didn't make sense anymore." He walked away from that world and found a home at Sprott Money, helping North Americans convert paper wealth into physical metal.

Sprott Money isn't some fly-by-night operation. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Toronto, it's one of Canada's largest bullion dealers - partnered with the Royal Canadian Mint, BBB accredited with an A+ rating, and run by Larisa Sprott, daughter of legendary gold investor Eric Sprott. They sell physical gold, silver and platinum to retail investors across Canada and the US, with options for secure allocated storage worldwide.

So when Andrew told me in an interview on Friday to "buy as many silver maples as you can before you can't" - his words really caught my attention.

The Numbers Don't Lie

December 2025's sales at Sprott Money hit just over $20 million - roughly triple normal volume. Wait times for Silver Eagles have stretched to one to two months. Brand new Eagles haven't even left the mint yet.

"The mints are not producing what they have been. Not even close," Andrew told me. "If the raw material is not coming in the back door, there's nothing coming out the front door. Regardless if everyone's standing around waiting to work."

For Canadian readers in particular, there's a useful comparison. The last time Andrew saw anything like this was February 2022 - right after the government announced they would freeze the bank accounts of anyone who had made a donation to support the trucker convoy. Canadians lined up to withdraw cash, and fears of a bank run spread across social media.

Andrew was at Sprott Money when it happened. "That opened up the gates like you wouldn't believe," he recalled. He worked 15-hour days, returning calls based on time zones, doing deals until midnight with clients in BC. In his first full month at the company, January 2022, he'd written $2.2 million in sales. Then the announcement to freeze bank accounts came on a Thursday afternoon.

"I did $2.5 million that afternoon," Andrew said. "The following Tuesday, I worked 15 hours straight and wrote $7 million. Single biggest day ever." By Friday - six business days after the announcement - he'd sold $16 million. The office did around $24 million for the month.

He told me that December 2025 was comparable. The urgency is back - but this time it's not about a single political event. It's about the dawning realization that physical silver is becoming genuinely scarce.

What Eric Sprott Actually Owns

Here's something that might surprise you: Eric Sprott - the billionaire whose name is synonymous with precious metals investing - doesn't own PSLV. Or PHYS. Or CEF.

He sold Sprott Wealth Management, which runs those ETFs, about 12 years ago. Zero ties now - not a board member, not a shareholder. "Lots of people still think Eric owns it," Andrew said. "It's just widespread misunderstanding."

So what does he hold? According to Andrew, who has spoken with Eric Sprott directly: around 90% of his billions - is in physical gold and silver. The remaining 10% sits in mining stocks.

The godfather of precious metals ETFs holds the majority of his wealth in physical bullion.

Andrew's take on ETFs is blunt: "The average investor comes in with a much smaller amount of money - let's call it 50 grand. You're not a large enough investor to stand for delivery. You're only ever going to get a check. So you go into this thinking you're buying metal, and you get paid in Canadian dollars. What have you really done?"

His concern is timing. When things get serious, ETF holders will sell, receive cash, and then try to buy physical. "They're going to be like, why didn't I do this three years ago? Silver could be $300 an ounce. Gold could be $10,000."

Why Silver Is Mispriced

There's another factor many investors overlook: silver's true scarcity. Unlike gold, where over 90% of everything ever mined still exists, the Silver Institute estimates that up to 90% of all silver produced throughout history has been lost - consumed in industrial applications or sitting in landfills in quantities too small to recover economically.

Whether or not those estimates are accurate, we know beyond all doubt that modern tech is consuming silver at an unprecedented rate.

Andrew points to platinum, currently trading around $2,300 an ounce, and asks why silver - arguably scarcer in available supply - trades at just $90 - some 25 times cheaper. "It doesn't make sense," he said.

Where This Is Headed

Andrew isn't shy about price targets. Based purely on supply and demand that he’s witnessing, he says silver could hit $120 by the end of January or February, and if that happens we could even be looking at $200 by late spring/summer - potentially $300 a year or two from now. With Silver at anything like those levels, $10,000 Gold wouldn’t be unreasonable. “As the price rises, we’ll also see days when Silver falls by over $10, but that will be healthy to help reset the sentiment,” he added.

Aggressive? Absolutely. But consider the context: silver has already quadrupled in less than two years. The supply crunch is accelerating. And storage preferences at Sprott Money have doubled - from around 10% of customers choosing allocated storage to 22% now. People aren't flipping. They're holding for the long haul.

"Those who lose the least in this next paradigm shift will be the new wealth," Andrew said. "The vast majority of the public are going to lose all of their savings. It's the same thing that happened in the Great Depression, same thing that happens every time you have a currency devaluation."

It's a sobering framing - wealth preservation rather than wealth creation. But when your local bullion dealer is warning about two-month wait times, it's worth taking seriously.

What To Do About It

Andrew's advice is simple and prioritized:

First: Silver coins - Eagles for Americans, Maples for Canadians. "The coins are the first things that are going to sell out. After that, when the silver is gone, then you go after gold. Because gold is still around."

Second: Coins over bars. His reasoning is practical: transactability. "The premium difference between a 10-ounce bar and coins isn't that much right now, and the bar doesn't have the potential to help you nearly as much. You can do anything with a coin - but if someone wants one ounce for something and nobody makes change, what are you doing with the bar?"

Third: Andrew admits that he doesn’t closely follow the mining companies, and says if he had to invest in ETFs, he’d probably choose PSLV and PHYS.

The Bottom Line

Only about half a percent of the population buys physical metal. The phones ring when prices rise and go silent on dips - "everybody's backwards on this," Andrew observed. Most people are still sleepwalking through this rally, happy with their wealth manager's 10% annual returns.

But the dealers see what's coming. The mints can't keep up. The wait times are stretching. And one of the most experienced voices in bullion is saying, plainly: buy before you can't.

Check out Sprott Money's silver coins and bars here. They deliver physical metals to the US and Canada, and if you’re anywhere else in the world, you can still stack through their allocated storage program.

A few stories that you might have missed.

An amateur prospector with an $800 metal detector found a 4.6kg gold-filled rock worth $160,000 in Victoria's Golden Triangle. Daily Galaxy

Mining stocks are crushing it in early 2026 - demolishing the S&P 500's measly 0.7% gain as investors rotate into safe havens. Bloomberg

Agnico Eagle Mines is positioned to keep winning in 2026 with plans to hit 1 million ounces annually. The Motley Fool

That’s all for this Sunday, folks! I’ll see you on Tuesday.

Before you go, please take a moment to rate today’s GoldBuzz and tell us how we did.

Rick Adams
Founder, GoldBuzz
rick@goldbuzz.com