As a result, the gold/silver ratio has climbed from a good 70 at the beginning of the year to over 80 now," said Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann to Kitco News. If the headwinds that have been preventing a precious metal breakout begin to diminish — and it seems they might, given the current inflation environment — that could signal to investors that silver could get hot. "The industrial component of the silver market will tend to benefit more against a macro backdrop, which is still resulting in above-trend growth on a global basis,” said Hynes.