Silver is the great Catch-22 for the powers that be. They suppress the price to discourage it from being a store of value. They claim it's not money, yet many countries continue to mint silver coins, with ridiculously low denominations, which they sell to the people at spot price.
The price suppression comes back to bite them, when silver mines are unable to mine the metal for a profit, which causes more shortages. Yet somehow despite heavy industrial demand, prices remain stagnant.