Looks like you had quite a few silver contacts in that mix. A majority of that silver was probably from those.
no, there was not a single silver contact there.
there were only silver plated parts..
The scheme of work is as follows:
Since there was a lot of raw materials (by volume), I divided it into 3 parts.
the first part is poured into a glass and filled with sulfuric acid, put on heat to start the reaction. (ambient temperature was about 12 degrees Celsius, autumn)
add the first 50 ml of nitric acid...
I stirred the material in the glass several times for better contact with the acid.
Apart from a slight white haze over the glass when I removed the lid, there were no visible signs of a reaction.
in 20 minutes the process was completed.
the liquid was poured into another glass, into which the second part of the material had already been poured.
The material from the first glass is poured onto a sieve and washed with water.
The rinse water immediately drips into a bucket containing salt water, where it turns into silver chloride.
the third part of the material is poured into the first glass.
The second wash lasts a little longer.
the third is even longer and so on....
if you have a lot of prepared raw materials at once, such transfusions can be continued.
adding nitric acid.
Over time, when saturated with silver, the solution thickens and silver sulfite accumulates in it.
then it is poured into a separate container and allowed to stand for 12-14 hours.
All the sulfite (and debris) settles to the bottom.
the liquid part is decanted, diluted with fresh sulfuric acid and the process can be continued again.
