Silver has started the year off with a bang, rising 15 percent to $31.80 an ounce, and it has plenty further to go, says Michael Purves, chief market strategist at BGC Financial.

“We may be setting up for something more powerful. We could see $50 later this year," he tells Yahoo. That would represent a climb of 57 percent from current levels. Silver hit a record high just below $50 last April.

Continued central bank easing and industrial supply/demand factors will act as the catalysts for silver’s surge, Purves says. “What really drives silver is the hard money issue and industrial demand,” he says.

“Both of those arguments look very strong. Silver miners can’t increase production, and a lot of recycled silver is out of the environment, because so much of that came from analog photography, which is an endangered species.”

Silver also represents a way to play gold, Purves says. The two metals often move in the same direction, but silver with more intensity.

"Silver is a poor man's gold, and it's also very volatile," Purves says. "I think a lot of that volatility will be skewed to the upside."

Last week’s options data showed traders are the most bullish they have been in 16 months on the iShares Silver Trust exchange-traded fund.

"There's optimism among silver call [option] buyers," Donald Selkin, the market strategist at National Securities, tells Bloomberg.