If the cumulative global silver deficit since 2004 of one billion ounces wasn’t large enough, a data revision published by the Silver Institute shows the actual figure was much higher. How much higher? A great deal when the additional revised amount would totally wipe out all the silver at the Comex and Shanghai Futures Exchange warehouses.

The Silver Institute receives its figures from the GFMS Team at Thomson Reuters. The GFMS Team also puts out the World Silver Surveys. Some of the data from the World Silver Surveys are published on the Silver Institute website.

Before I get into the details of this deficit revision, I want to discuss the notion put forth by many precious metals investors that “NONE” of the information from the Silver Institute should be trusted. These folks claim that “ALL” the data is manipulated.

While I agree that this data is being researched, quantified and published by Thomson Reuters, one of the largest data-news organizations in the world, there is a lot of good information in these World Silver Surveys. Matter of fact, much of the silver mine supply data is taken from government sources such as the USGS in the United States.

Of course, some precious metals investors will say this government mining data shouldn’t be trusted either. Well, if that is true, then the person we are married to or in a relationship with may actually be an alien from some foreign planet. The conspiracy mantra can go to absurd levels. While I believe conspiracies do indeed take place, not everything is manipulated or a conspiracy.

For example, government mining data is pretty accurate because it’s done by bureaucrats who are just doing their job. Furthermore, we can check silver mine supply which is reported by private and public companies and then match it up with the government data. For the most part, this jibes nicely.

Of course there are still some precious metals investors who believe all the public and private mining data is manipulated. They may believe that the companies are either under-reporting production or there are a bunch of hidden out-of-the-way mines that are not included in the data. Sure, there could be some mines that are missed or excluded on purpose, but this would be a small amount. We must remember, there are State and Federal taxes that are collected from these mines. Neither the State nor the Federal Government will forgo receiving taxes just to keep a mine hidden (for the most part).