SILVER means second prize for Olympians but for investors it has been a better option than gold both last year and in 2011.
For thousands of years it was second only to gold in value, but when digital photography supplanted silver-based film it was increasingly rejected as a dud investment.
However, a swag of new industrial uses - solar power being the most significant - meant it was the best performing precious metal last year, surging 83 per cent to a 30-year peak of $US30.92 an ounce.
The story is even better this year, with the Comex silver contract, for May delivery, hitting a record $US49.82 a troy ounce earlier this week, having gained 56 per cent in four months.
It is appreciating relative to gold, trading at 30-year low ratios of about 35:1 (the number of silver ounces needed to buy an ounce of gold) and falling, compared with 70:1 a year ago.
Australia has no Australian Securities Exchange-listed pure silver producers, but Cobar Consolidated Resources appears to have timed its run well and plans to start production in NSW this year.
When it first drilled the western NSW area in 2007, it concluded that the project would be viable with the then price of silver at $US16 an ounce, Cobar Consolidated's managing director Ian Lawrence told AAP.
Since then, the price of silver has almost tripled.
Cobar's share price has almost doubled already this year, more than doubled in 2010, and more than quadrupled in 2009.
The stock fell 2.5 cents to $1.065 today.
Copper, gold, zinc and lead mines already operate in the region.
"Our sentiment a couple of years ago was that the silver price would move and our development strategy has been to get into production as soon as we possibly can to take advantage of that," Mr Lawrence said.
"I have no real idea why we thought that, other than being a bit optimistic ... as it turned out the tea leaves have been read pretty well."
As well as being a precious metal to store wealth in times of high inflation, silver also has some useful industrial uses and investors are discovering that again.
Silver is used as a reflector in solar power cells and there is currently no alternative, with 120 million of the 700 million to 800 million ounces of silver produced globally each year used in the cells, according to Mr Lawrence.
The metal also finds its way into socks, underwear and deodorants through anti-bacterial properties, electronics, mobile phones, as a conductor of electricity and water purification, just to name a few uses.
Mr Lawrence said demand for silver for new industrial applications was growing at about 20 per cent a year but production was up only five per cent.
Mine Life senior resources analyst Gavin Wendt said the boom in precious metals - with gold up about eight per cent and also at record prices - had a long way to go.
"You buy gold and put it away or use for jewellery, silver has more industrial uses, it's almost an industrial metal," he said.
"I think the US dollar is going to stay low and that is very good for precious metals."
Ironically, gold's greater value has traditionally lay in its durability while silver was more vulnerable to the elements.
Today, the chemical reactions that affect silver are contributing to demand far outstripping supply, Mr Lawrence said.
"I think a number I saw not so long ago was about 700 million ounces of silver bullion that you can put you hands on," he said.
"That's less than a year's production in the global market.
"While people are putting silver away as hedges against currency devaluation and inflation, that will keep demand pretty robust as well."
Cobar Consolidated' Wonawinta project, near Cobar, is Australia's largest undeveloped silver resource, with more than 50 million ounces.
Its production forecasts are for 2.5 million ounces per annum, which are to be used to produce dore, or silver bars.
The company had the potential to become a globally significant, low-cost silver producer, after it goes into its first silver pour by the end of 2011, Mine Life's Mr Vendt said.
"The problem for most investors in Australia is there aren't really any pure silver players," he said.
"BHP has got the biggest silver deposit (Cannington), but you don't really get silver exposure if you buy BHP.
"Cobar Consolidated really are the only ASX-listed company that can offer investors pure exposure to silver because they are a pure silver player that's going to be producing ... I think it's quite exciting really."
Cobar Consolidated announced a $28 million capital raising recently - with $15 million secured through private placement and $13.4 million through an underwritten rights issue.
The company has a market capitalisation of $174 million.
