Silver is still headed up.

Moving up slightly to $31.90 on Wednesday morning, the precious metal eyed a statement from the Federal Reserve coming later in the day following a two-day policy meeting.

Investors have been buying up the resource as a safe haven in the sluggish economy. The Fed’s announcement of the third round of easing gave it even more of a boost.

And on Friday, the U.S. Mint announced that boost was more than for gold. Way more.

The data showed gold sales for the year were 525,000 ounces, while silver sales were 2,449,000 ounces just for the month of October. For the whole year, silver sales were 28,244,000 ounces – fifty times higher than gold.

Silver is cheaper than gold but has a tendency to follow the same upward trends, making it an attractive alternative for investors.

In many cases, it’s even been known to outperform gold. And it’s been looking particularly good to investors as of late.

Of course, if this sales pace keeps up, the price of silver is certain to rise. $50 silver is right around the corner.

According to Silver Doctors, silver sales at this pace could hit between 33 and 55 million by the end of the year.

But the U.S. Mint may not be able to keep pace with these sales, particularly if silver surpassed $50 an ounce. It’s silver-to-gold mining ratio is only 9 to 1. The sales ratio is 53.8 to 1.

Still, it appears to be headed straight for that price. And when this supply squeeze does come, it will become even more valuable. Those who managed to get their hands on it in the early stages will be the lucky ones.

Brianna Panzica – Wealthwire – October 24th, 2012