the acidic solution through a column packed with the strong base anion exchange resin copper iron and zinc if present dissolved in the acidic solution are also adsorbed on the anion exchange resin at the same time meanwhile since silicon aluminum calcium magnesium and cobalt dissolved in the acidic solution are not adsorbed on the anion exchange resin these elements can be separated even if they are present the acidic solution discharged from the column can be recycled to the leaching step the reason for the use of anion exchange resin is that the dissolved silver to be recovered is believed to be present in the anionic form of agcl 2 u2212 the reason for the use of strong base is that the anion i e cl u2212 in the resin is believed to be readily detached by ion exchange for agcl 2 u2212 examples of the strong base anion exchange resin include ones having trimethylammonium groups i e type i and ones having dimethylethanolammonium groups i e type ii in a standpoint of the adsorption efficiency of silver type i is preferred the anion exchange resins are classified into a porous type and a gel type typically the porous type is used the condition of step 1 may vary depending on the concentration of silver in the acidic solution in case of a concentration of silver not more than 30 mg l the bed volume bv i e the volume of fed liquid divided by the volume of the resin which indicates the number of times of the volume of fed liquid per volume of resin is controlled to preferably 10 to.