Sep 8, 2026
Silver just did something it hasn’t done in more than 40 years — it broke into triple digits, touching a record US$121.62 an ounce in early 2026, according to Investing News.
Both Investors and miners — the workers and companies physically responsible for unearthing this precious metal — benefited from this price surge. For instance, Aya Gold & Silver (CBOE: AYA), which runs a primary silver mine in Morocco and trades on the TSX, reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of US$117 million, up 247% from the same period a year earlier.
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With valuations like this, it’s hard for Canadian do-it-yourself (DIY) investors to ignore precious metals — a sector usually dominated by gold bullion prices. As a result, exploration-stage publicly traded names on the TSX Venture Exchange have also benefited from the surge in interest and pricing — posting year-to-date gains as high as 305%.
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But a commodity supercycle is not the same thing as a safe investment, and Canadians who load up on these stocks inside a tax-free savings account (TFSA) face a risk that has nothing to do with the price of silver. Here’s how investors can position silver — and other precious metals — amid the flourishing precious metals market.
What’s actually driving the silver rally?
Silver’s climb is being pinned on a structural supply deficit — mine output and recycling haven’t kept pace with demand from solar panels, electric vehicles and other industrial uses. Then there’s the fact that investors keep looking for a safe haven — an investment in this sector that is a cheaper alternative to gold.
The silver rally appears to be providing investors with this opportunity. Consider Aya’s revenue jump, which was driven by a higher realized silver price and a 40% increase in ounces mined, year-over-year, ending in Q1 2026. Aya’s increased production combined with elevated silver prices meant a 417% year-over-year increase in the company’s 2025 revenue to US$202 million. Aya isn’t the only beneficiary of the silver surge. Silvercorp Metals (TSX: SVM) and AbraSilver Resource (TSX: ABRA) have also posted double-digit year-to-date gains on rising output and expanding resource estimates.
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Why isn’t a hot rally the same as a safe bet?
Experienced investors know volatility works in your favour when prices surge, but can produce significant losses when reversed. Exploration-stage juniors such as Honey Badger Silver (NEO: TUF.NE) and BP Silver (NEO: BPAG.NE) depend on a single project, in a single jurisdiction, to eventually become a mine — and most exploration projects never do, according to an Investment News article.
Even established producers carry country-specific risk: Aya’s operations are concentrated in Morocco, while AbraSilver’s flagship project is in Argentina. As a result, a single permitting delay, weather event or currency swing can erase months of gains.
Investors also need to consider the tax implications
There’s a part many Canadians miss: Holding these assets inside the wrong account can mean paying more in tax.
A TFSA is designed to shelter investment income and capital gains from tax. But the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) can tax a TFSA’s earnings at the highest personal rate if the account is found to be carrying on a business — such as day trading — rather than simply investing.
That’s what happened to one Vancouver investment adviser, who turned roughly $15,000 in TFSA contributions into more than $600,000 by frequently trading speculative junior mining stocks. The Tax Court of Canada ruled his TFSA was carrying on a trading business, making the profits taxable — a decision the Federal Court of Appeal later upheld.
When deciding these cases, the CRA weighs factors including how often an account trades, how long it holds a position and whether the securities are considered speculative.
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Quite often, investors chase every silver headline with frequent buy-and-sell trades; there is nothing wrong with this frequent trading, unless you try to shelter the tax on these trades inside a TFSA — and this is the exact pattern the CRA flagged.
How can you get exposure without stacking the risks?
Canadians who still want in on the silver surge need to realize that money can be made, as long as a few distinctions are made.
For example, rather than buying and selling individual stock in a short time-period, consider investing in a broad-based precious metals or silver ETF. Not only does this allow you to shelter gains from tax — holding the precious metals ETF inside a TFSA — but it also spreads company-specific risk across many producers rather than betting on one project or one country.
For investors who want to hold individual names, consider selecting companies you are comfortable with holding for a longer time horizon. The key is to buy and sell these positions in fewer transactions — a pattern that looks more like investing and less like the trading-business pattern the CRA scrutinizes.
For investors who want to maximize gains with short, successive trades, consider doing so in a non-registered account or an RRSP, where the rules around business income differ, rather than risking their TFSA’s tax-free status.
What to do before you buy in
To be clear, in recent days, weeks and months, Canadian investors who bought a basket of junior silver miners and traded several times a month saw fast gains — but if the CRA later determines the TFSA carried on a business, those gains would be taxed at ordinary income rates, not sheltered at all.
Before adding silver stocks to any portion of your portfolio, decide whether you’re investing for the long term or speculating on price swings, then size any position so a single setback doesn’t derail your plan. If you want to shelter your gains from tax, be sure to keep transactions infrequent enough that your TFSA still looks like an investment account, not a trading desk.
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Romana King, Senior Editor at Money.ca, also writes for various North American publications and the RKHomeowner blog. Her book, House Poor No More, is an Amazon bestseller and five-time award winner, including the 2022 New York CPA Society's Excellence in Financial Journalism (EFJ) Book Award.
