⚠ The Rankings Do Not Pay AnybodyModerate threat

KGHM Polska Miedź (KGH) — threat to the moat

The second-largest silver producer and the twentieth get the same price on the same day.

Being first among the world's silver mines is a fact about geology, and it is worth precisely the silver price times the tonnage.

Same tonnage, different years (silver, USD/oz)23,35202328,27202440,032025Silver output was 1 403 t, 1 316 t and 1 323 t across those three years
The ranking was identical in all three. The revenue was not, and the difference is entirely the price.

KGHM's 1 323,3 tonnes of metallic silver in 20251 earned 6 133 million złoty at the parent2 because silver averaged 40,03 dollars an ounce that year3. The same tonnage at 2022's 21,73 dollars4 would have earned roughly half. The ranking was identical in both years.

That is the limitation of a scale position in a commodity: it confers no pricing power whatsoever. The second-largest silver producer and the twentieth receive the same price per ounce on the same day. Scale here buys procurement terms, technical depth and a lower unit cost of processing — it does not buy a premium, and there is no customer who pays more because the metal came from the biggest mine.

There is also no protection in it. A silver producer cannot withhold output to support the price without simply losing revenue, and KGHM's silver arrives as a by-product of a copper mine that will keep running regardless.

Nor does scale protect the volume. KGHM's silver comes out of a copper mine, so the tonnage is set by how much ore is hoisted and how much silver happens to be in it - 49 grams a tonne on the resource statement5 - rather than by any decision about the silver market.

The number that tests this is realised price against the London benchmark. If KGHM's realised silver price ever differs materially from the market, something has gone wrong rather than right — and that, precisely, is what having no pricing power looks like.

References
  1. ReportedKGHM's 1 323,3 tonnes of metallic silver in 2025 earned 6 133 million złoty at the parent because silver averaged 40,03 dollars an ounce that year.
    KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. Group - Management Board's report on activities in the first half of 2026, production, unit costs and employment (electrolytic copper of 291,5 thousand tonnes of which 183,6 thousand from own concentrate, metallic silver of 696,7 tonnes, the pre-precious-metals-credit unit cost of 52 201 złoty a tonne against a total unit cost of 17,415, C1 of 2,44 USD/lb, average group employment of 34 543 including 18 870 at the parent, and payable copper from the international assets of 59,5 thousand tonnes of which Sierra Gorda 40,2 and Robinson 17,7) — H1 2026 · publ. August 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedKGHM's 1 323,3 tonnes of metallic silver in 2025 earned 6 133 million złoty at the parent because silver averaged 40,03 dollars an ounce that year.
    KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. Group - Management Board's report on activities in the first half of 2026, production, unit costs and employment (electrolytic copper of 291,5 thousand tonnes of which 183,6 thousand from own concentrate, metallic silver of 696,7 tonnes, the pre-precious-metals-credit unit cost of 52 201 złoty a tonne against a total unit cost of 17,415, C1 of 2,44 USD/lb, average group employment of 34 543 including 18 870 at the parent, and payable copper from the international assets of 59,5 thousand tonnes of which Sierra Gorda 40,2 and Robinson 17,7) — H1 2026 · publ. August 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedKGHM's 1 323,3 tonnes of metallic silver in 2025 earned 6 133 million złoty at the parent because silver averaged 40,03 dollars an ounce that year.
    KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. Group - Management Board's report on activities in the first half of 2026, production, unit costs and employment (electrolytic copper of 291,5 thousand tonnes of which 183,6 thousand from own concentrate, metallic silver of 696,7 tonnes, the pre-precious-metals-credit unit cost of 52 201 złoty a tonne against a total unit cost of 17,415, C1 of 2,44 USD/lb, average group employment of 34 543 including 18 870 at the parent, and payable copper from the international assets of 59,5 thousand tonnes of which Sierra Gorda 40,2 and Robinson 17,7) — H1 2026 · publ. August 2026 · source ↗
  4. ReportedThe same tonnage at 2022's 21,73 dollars would have earned roughly half.
    KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. Group - Management Board's report on activities in 2025, the production and unit-cost record (electrolytic copper of 570,9 thousand tonnes against 588,7 in 2024, 592,4 in 2023 and 560,4 in 2020; metallic silver of 1 323 tonnes against 1 403 in 2023; C1 payable copper production cost of 3,16 USD/lb for the Polish assets against 1,03 for KGHM INTERNATIONAL and 0,86 for Sierra Gorda; group payable copper of 710,0 thousand tonnes against 753,7 in 2021; wire rod and wire production of 279,9 thousand tonnes; and world mined silver production of about 25,3 thousand tonnes) — FY2018-FY2025 · publ. 10 March 2026 · source ↗
  5. Moat Explorer calcKGHM's silver comes out of a copper mine, so the tonnage is set by how much ore is hoisted and how much silver happens to be in it - 49 grams a tonne on the resource statement - rather than by any decision about the silver market.
    Moat Explorer calculation - arithmetic on figures KGHM reports: ore grade (30 387 thousand tonnes of copper over 1 858 259 thousand tonnes of ore, and 91 837 tonnes of silver over the same), the by-product credit (52 201 less 17 415 złoty a tonne), the European share of parent sales (about 17 147m of 21 927m), copper and silver as a share of parent revenue (22 378m and 6 133m of 30 964m), the minerals extraction tax against parent net profit (4 693m over 1 946m), the dividend against trailing earnings (1,50 against 43,44 a share), and own concentrate as a share of refined output (183,6 of 291,5 thousand tonnes) — FY2023-H1 2026 · publ. September 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 24, 2026