Silver is set to sling-shot higher as it plays catchup to gold, creating big opportunities for investors, according to silver bulls.

Here are three reasons that the optimists cite for the likelihood that the white metal has fully recovered from its May collapse and is ready to join gold in a lucrative rally.

History points to a rally. The historic price ratio between gold and silver has been 16 to one, gold to silver. Based on that ratio and gold's current price of nearly $1,800 per ounce, the price of silver should be about $117 per ounce, roughly its current price.

I think we'll see these numbers within four years' time, silver analyst Rob McEwen told The Gold Report.

If predictions of gold hitting $4,800 come true, silver would then be at more than $300 per ounce.

Silver mining facing more limits. The number of impediments to mining is growing, despite higher demand. That translates into a higher price.

You're starting to see real limits on the amount of growth that can occur, said McEwen. In the 1990s and 2000s, very few people were going through mining schools because there weren't many career opportunities. The people who built the physical plants have scaled back. We are seeing the impact of that lack of investment in education, in the productive capacity of the suppliers and huge jumps in the capital expenditures for various projects. Labor wants a larger piece and you see a lot more labor strikes. Finally, governments are looking at the mining industry as a very easy target to extract more money from because the industry doesn't have a lot of friends.

Top investors are piling into silver. Eric Sprott of Canada-based Sprott Asset Management aims to spend $32 million buying physical silver, according to Mineweb.

That is evident in the latest prices. Silver for September delivery on the CME Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped nearly 2 percent on Monday. The spot price for silver jumped 94 cents to $43.375 per ounce.

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