Silver is commercially obtained as a by-product of copper, gold, lead, and nickel processing. Isolation processes for silver includes using the Parkes process on lead metal, electrolytic procedures on various metals, and on a small scale using copper metal. The Parkes process uses pyrometallurgical technology to isolate silver from lead in a liquid-liquid extraction process. The first stage of the process is to melt the lead/silver compound and combine it with liquid zinc. The sliver is attracted to the zinc and forms a separate liquid layer under the top zinc layer, the liquid lead remains on the bottom. The zinc-silver solution is heated removing the zinc from the silver.
Silver is isolated from other metals such as copper and zinc using electrolytic purification of the solution of metals and electrolysis the silver with a nitrate solution. In the laboratory, silver can be isolated by dipping copper metal into a solution of silver nitrate forming pure silver crystals in a solution of copper nitrate.
