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(Kitco News) – The silver market remains extremely volatile as the price manages to hold support above $22.50 an ounce. However, one mining executive said that silver remains an attractive long-term investment as it moves closer to becoming an essential metal for the global economy.

In a telephone interview with Kitco News, Morgan Lekstrom, president of Silver Hammer (formerly known as Lakewood Exploration), said that the global push to develop green energy infrastructure and the growing popularity of electric vehicles are critical drivers for silver‘s industrial demand.

Lekstrom added that as technology evolves, he sees silver as a critical metal for global growth, playing a similar role as copper.

“You can’t have robust economic growth without copper. Silver will be the same thing as technology advances,” he said.

With so much fundamental support, Lekstrom added that investors should look past the near-term volatility. He said that he sees silver market is seeing some short-term mid-cycle weakness in what is a decades-long bull market.

“There is coming a time here, in very short order, where silver production will under-pacing demand,” he said. “If there’s not enough supply and there’s more demand, the price is going to go up.”

While interest is expected to build in silver, Lekstrom said he sees the same thing happening for the mining sector, which has also struggled to attract investor attention this year.

Lekstrom said it is only a matter of time before interest returns to the mining sector as more companies feel the growing effects of the global supply crunch.

“Nobody is paying attention to where things are coming from, but that will change. When companies start to worry about how they are going to get the next smartphone to the market or the next electric vehicle, then you will see a new focus on mining,” he said. “The baseline for all economies is commodities like copper and silver.”

Lekstrom said that with so much potential in the market, now is an exciting time to be a junior silver miner. Silver Hammer is a new player in the market but has been aggressively expanding its resources and projects.

The company initially went public in May with its flagship Silver Strand project, which is within Idaho’s renowned Coeur d’Alene mining district. 1.2 billion ounces of silver has come out of the district in the last century.

The company’s project is a past-producing mine, but Lekstrom noted that it only went to a depth of 90 meters. He added that the area has been largely ignored for the past 30 years.

“The technology is so much different than what it was 20 or 30 years ago and our understanding of the geology has also changed a lot,” he said. “I think there is the potential to create another tier-one asset in this prolific district.”

However, since going public, the company has also acquired two other properties: the Silverton Silver Mine, in East Nevada’s “Silver Alley.” The third project the company is now developing is the Eliza Silver project in the Hamilton Mining District, also in Nevada.