On the demand front, both Silver and Zinc will likely get a boost in the future as new battery technology taps both for the next generation of laptop batteries. ZPower is promising higher energy density (to the tune of 40%), more environmental safety (yay recycling), and more chemical stability (a.k.a., fewer exploding laptop batteries).

No need to dive into silver or zinc futures to catch this trend though, the new batteries won’t be out until 2009, and existing laptops won’t be able to take advantage of the tech (new laptops that are designed to work with the new batteries only). That should stall things for a while, but if the 40% bump in energy payoff is real, I can’t imagine laptop makers not wanting a piece of this new tech.

Still, with Zinc in a downtrend since December 2006, this could eventually cause enough demand for a turn of the tide…

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Silver is a different beast and tends to go along with Gold’s direction… and silver also provides the majority of the cost for said silver-zinc batteries.