Can't say for certain this is what is happening but it is a possibility.

Kitco has gold, silver, and other precious metals pools. Just suppose they don't have the metal to back up these pools and people are suddenly in larger numbers requesting delivery of the physical metal. They would either have to go out into the market and buy it at a terrible loss to their balance sheet, admit their situation and perhaps be forced out of business, or bad mouth gold and silver in the hopes of frightening off those wanting to hold the physical metal.

Please understand that I am not saying this is the case. I don't know what their situation is. But I agree with you, to be a precious metals dealer and to be bashing the product you offer is a mighty odd situation. What I proposed is a possible but probably not the only possible explanation.

According to the BIS there are 111 billion dollars worth of precious metals derivatives in their "other metals" category. Only 1% of which is likely to be other than silver. Annual silver investment comes in at about $1 billion/year. So the derivative position is about 100 times or so the yearly silver investment demand. To say that each phsyical ounce of silver has been sold many times over is an understatement. When the scramble to get what really exists starts it will get dicey for a lot of sellers who hold nothing but air in their vaults and worse for investors who will never collect what was promised and paid for.

http://silverstockreport.com/2009/tiny-silver-II.html

P.