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Silver futures advanced for a third straight session amid signs of tightening supply as demand rises.
The U.S. Mint, Royal Canadian Mint, Perth Mint, Austrian Mint and British Royal Mint are placing limits on silver-coin sales, pointing to "considerable tightness" in the market, the Silver Institute said in a report Tuesday.
Lead times have been stretched from immediate delivery to three to four weeks in some cases, an "unusual occurrence," the group said. Gold futures also rose.
"Demand has been huge" for silver, said Peter Thomas, a senior vice president at Zaner Group LLC, a metals broker in Chicago, "We're selling as much product as we're getting in. I've been almost four months behind now" on deliveries, he said.
Silver futures for December delivery gained 0.3 percent to settle at $15.907 an ounce at 1:50 p.m. on the Comex in New York. Prices have risen 2 percent in 2015, making the metal one of only two raw materials that have climbed this year on the Bloomberg Commodity Index.
Gold futures for December delivery rose 0.1 percent to $1,165.40 an ounce on the Comex. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, palladium and platinum fell.