Silver electro-refining is mainly used to treat Dore alloy from copper/lead anode slime and WEEE recycling, mixed silver with crude gold from cyanide gold slime smelting and other silver-bearing scrap and jewelry.

Silver ER is performed in FRPP electrolytic cells. Silver anode plate and titanium plate are used as anode and cathode respectively. The electrolyte is diluted silver nitrate made from nitric acid and silver powder. During operation, silver dissolves at the anode and deposits at the cathode. Copper content also dissolves in the solution. Lead and bismuth is hydrolyzed into oxides, and the gold, the majority of platinum, palladium are insoluble, which report to anode slime.