Investors are likely to increase their net silver purchases in the years ahead, mainly due to the global economy, capital preservation and silver’s application as a leading industrial metal, according to a report released by the Silver Institute on October 22.

The report, Silver Investment Demand, suggests that investors may accumulate as much as one billion additional ounces of silver in various investment instruments over the next decade. This is in addition to more than 860 million ounces of silver purchased as an investment since 2006.