The Australian was reporting on Wednesday morning that the price of silver futures closed up 4.1% in overnight trading to US$60.17, with the price more than doubling over the past year.

Among Australian shares, Andean Silver Ltd (ASX: ASL) was 14.9% higher at $2.15, Silver Mines Ltd (ASX: SVL) was 5.3% higher at 20 cents, and Mithril Silver and Gold Ltd (ASX: MTH) was 5.2% higher at 51 cents.

Shares in Unico Silver Ltd (ASX: USL) were also sharply higher at 67.5 cents, up 10.7%.

Support looking strong

Minelife analyst Gavin Wendt said in a note to clients in recent days that silver has had a strong couple of weeks, with strong inflows into exchange-traded funds adding more impetus to the price rally.

As he said:

Total additions to silver-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the four days through Thursday were already the highest for any full week since July, a strong indicator of investor appetite despite signals silver's gains may be overdone.

Mr Wendt said on a fundamental basis, the support for silver would remain strong.

Silver prices have roughly doubled this year, outpacing a 60% rise in gold. The rally has accelerated in the last two months, in part thanks to a historic squeeze in London. While that crunch has eased in recent weeks as more metal was shipped to the world's biggest silver trading hub, other markets are now seeing supply constraints. Chinese inventories are near their lowest in a decade.

Rates move a positive

Mr Wendt said speculation that US interest rates would be heading lower was also a positive for silver, as a lower interest rate environment tended to support the prices of precious metals.

He also said Citigroup analysts were predicting possible further gains.

Silver could rise to US$62 an ounce in the coming three months 'on the back of Fed cuts, robust investment demand, and physical deficit,' Citigroup Inc. analysts including Max Layton wrote in a note.

Mr Wendt said global demand for silver, which was used in a wide variety of industrial processes, had outstripped output from mines for the past five years.

Not just valued as an investment asset, silver also has many useful real-world properties that make it a component in a range of products, such as circuit boards, solar panels and coatings for medical devices.

The post Silver price hits new record, firing up Aussie shares appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The rocketing junior miner in question is Mithril Silver and Gold Ltd (ASX: MTH).

The Mithril share price closed yesterday at 20.5 cents. As we head into the Friday lunch hour, shares are swapping hands for 31.7 cents apiece, up 54.6%.

For some context, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is up 0.5% at this same time.

Now, you won't hear shareholders complaining about today's gains. But investors who bought the microcap stock last Wednesday, 11 September, will be really cheering.

The Mithril share price closed last Wednesday at 9.2 cents. That means those lucky or well-informed investors who bought the ASX gold stock on the day are looking at whopping gains of 244.6% in just seven trading days.

Boom!

While these are the kinds of rapid, outsized gains most investors dream of, it's important to remember that, along with the potential for big gains, investing in ASX microcap shares also carries significantly more risk.

With that said, here's what's got investors excited today.

ASX gold stock flying higher on drill results

The Mithril share price is going through the roof after the company reported promising drill results at its Copalquin District project, located in Durango State in Mexico.

The ASX gold stock said the drill hole drilled into a structure on the eastern side of its Target 1 area returned the highest-grade intercept drilled at the project to date, citing 1,180 grams per tonne of gold equivalent per metre.

Results from the drill hole included:

• 00m @31.8 g/t gold, 274 g/t silver from surface, including
• 00m @ 144 g/t gold, 1,162 g/t silver from 18m including
• 00m @ 495 g/t gold, 3,765 g/t silver from 20m plus including
• 00m @ 26.9 g/t gold, 201 g/t silver from 28m

Commenting on the results sending the ASX gold stock soaring today, Mithril CEO John Skeet said, "Hole CDH-159 is a globally significant >1,000 g/t AuEq x metre drill hole at the maiden resource Target 1 area where we aim to [double] the resource in Q1 2025."

Skeet added:

The intercept includes a zone of lower grade material from surface plus a very high-grade zone from 16 metres down hole, including the typical bonanza gold and silver grades that are a hallmark of this important mining district.

With the exceptional dill results combined with our recent LiDAR survey, district access road upgrade works and development of the district geologic model, Copalquin continues to progress as another significant gold-silver district in Mexico's prolific Sierra Madre Trend.

Assays are pending for a second drill hole along the strike. Drilling is currently in progress on the western side of the Target 1 resource area.

With today's intraday gains factored in, the ASX gold stock is up 62% over 12 months.

The post Microcap ASX gold stock explodes 55% on 'globally significant' drill results appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.