The Silver Institute’s executive director released a statement this 
week regarding a consistent upward trend in stock market investor inquiries about the precious metal. The institute reported that over the next ten years, buyers may exponentially escalate their silver purchases by up to an additional billon ounces, due to increased current and potential shareholder interest in getting involved in silver stocks and adding silver to their portfolio.
Investors seem to be interested in adding silver to their portfolio in a variety of ways, looking into the acquisition of bullion, coins, and stocks in mining and technology companies. Silver is looking stable to investors because of this report amongst many other occurrences in industrial technology recently. Many spectators think of silver and only know of its role in jewelry and coins, but now are being exposed to the information about how half of total silver demand comes from the industrial sector, playing an increasingly more prominent and important role in medicine and technology.
Silver is also entering the fashion world with clothing and athletic brands weaving its way into fabrics and designs. Ralph Lauren has recently introduced a shirt with bio-sensitive silver fibers that utilize silver’s antibacterial properties and monitors the wearer’s heart rate, blood pressure, and miles walked and transfers that information to a smart phone or computer. Silver nanoparticles emit positively charged ions that impede the function of bacterial cells. The fashion giant Ralph Lauren is planning to start releasing tech-enhanced clothing starting in 2015, kicking off a new “wearable technology” industry.
Even in a recession, silver demand has the ability to increase because there are so many basic products and devices that require silver now. This has also happened in the past, during times of industrial expansion between 1900 and 1970 the demand for silver increased from 100 million to 400 million ounces. This was because of major urban and industrial growth taking place at this time with plumbing, automobiles, and the use of electricity becoming much more mainstream. One of the biggest boons for silver happened when photography was invented. It is predicted that silver will enter a period like this again with technological innovations. Silver is a more versatile metal than copper and is not the main material used for wiring because copper is less expensive. However, silver is a better conductor of electricity and is better at preventing power surges. As science and technology evolve, silver could play a bigger role in wiring as well, making it even more of an industrial essential.
