borostmcbarna
The information you seek you have found here on the forum, but it will take work on your part to learn from the information provided here.
Much of your question depends on if you have fairly pure silver as anode, or mostly base metals with some silver-plating on how you would proceed.
if you had sterling silver it would be best to dissolve in nitric acid then cement with copper and melt anodes and purify the silver in an electrolytic cell using silver nitrate electrolyte, sterling can be ran in the silver nitrate solution but you will have to be removing electrolyte and replacing it, and from what GSP say's (he is our silver expert GSP=gold silver pro), it takes the same nitric usage , so I see no benefit trying the sterling in this cell, considering time involved, and chance for a more impure product, some have had success with this method.
Plated silver articles were normally just sold for copper, the amount of base metals that would need dissolved have not made it worth messing with, although at today’s price for silver it maybe worth trying, I believe the concentrated sulfuric acid cell used to strip gold should also work to de-plate silver, I have not tried this so I can be wrong, if I tried I would add just a little sodium nitrate to the acid (not much), I would also keep reusing the electrolyte as it would hold silver and only collect any powder formed, this I would add to salt water to form silver chloride then convert the powders of silver chloride to elemental silver before melting, as I said this is only theory I have not tried but believe should work/
Welcome to the forum, you have a whole lot of home work to do, the forum is a great place to learn and enjoy yourself while studying, I suggest you start with Hokes book, found in the book section, also the safety section, paying close attention of the thread dealing with waste, in general chat you will find the welcome to new members, there you will find a guide to the forum that will help, and using the search button (I like the one on Laser Steve's web site to search the forum I find it more useful) while at his site watch his videos, check out his store to help members with supply/s (great prices by the way), and he also has some great videos he sells (no I am not paid to advertise, it is just my opinion), he also has some must read tutorials, others here on the forum also provide much information, they will usually have links in there signature lines, some great websites, tutorials and other information, so be prepared for information overload when you begin this journey, take your time, and before you know it you will be melting your refined metals.
