Silver joins the rally, setting its own record above $121

Silver set a fresh record of roughly $121.62 to $121.67 an ounce on 26 January 2026, the same session in which gold first broke $5,000. The move extended a rally that had built through 2025 on a combination of safe-haven buying, expectations of interest rate cuts, tariff-related uncertainty and rising industrial demand from the chip and battery sectors. The US Department of the Interior's decision to classify silver as a critical mineral added a further layer of official recognition to a metal already tightening in physical markets.

A smaller but real African angle

Silver is not among South Africa's leading export commodities in the way gold or platinum are, but it is produced as a by-product of both PGM and some base-metal operations on the subcontinent, and its price movements track closely with the broader precious-metals complex that dominates the JSE's resources index. When silver and gold rally together, as they did through January 2026, the effect shows up in the earnings of diversified miners with silver credits in their PGM or gold circuits, and in the sentiment that lifts precious-metals shares as a group.

Analysts were quick to flag how far the rally could still run. Michael Widmer, head of metals research at Bank of America, argued silver could trade anywhere between $135 and $309 an ounce during 2026, an unusually wide range that reflected how thin and easily squeezed the physical silver market had become relative to the wall of investment demand chasing it.

Part of a wider precious-metals story

Silver's record came in the same week that platinum was also pushing toward its own all-time high, underlining how broadly based the January 2026 precious-metals rally was. For South African-listed miners with exposure across gold, platinum and their by-product metals, it was briefly one of the most favourable pricing environments the sector had seen in decades.

The record also drew attention to how thin global above-ground silver stocks had become after years of industrial demand from solar panels and electronics outpacing new mine supply, a dynamic that mirrored, on a smaller scale, the deficit conditions already driving platinum and rhodium to their own extraordinary gains.

Sources

• CNBC: Silver just broke another record. Here's what's driving the precious metal's new price surge, 26 Jan 2026

Photo: Precious metal crystals, illustrative of the precious metals complex that rallied alongside silver in January 2026. Periodictableru, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.