depend upon the width and length required for the electrode 10 or 30 and can be wrapped as shown in fig7 9 or woven or knitted illustratively tows from a few inches to over 40 feet in length have been satisfactorily used in the practice of the invention one of the features of the present invention is the large surface area made possible by the electrodes in a small volume of solution which effects a low current density while yielding a high total current for the farraday equivalents illustratively a fiber of 7 microns which results in a coated fiber of 8 microns after plating in a tow of 40 000 40k fibers equals 40 square inches of area per inch of length of tow furthermore the resistance of the electroplated fibers is so low that the potential of the tow is substantially uniform even at a substantial distance from the terminals the electrodes of the present invention can be used in the removal and recovery of soluble metals in dilute solutions such as process streams from plating hydrometallurgy of mining waste streams from mining as well as wherever metals are present in dilute solutions such as in photographic and catalytic processes as has been described the electrodes of the present invention have large effective areas as a result effective winning currents and discretionary voltages can be achieved for the selective recovery of metals and removal of impurities moreover the electrodes can be used in bipolar cell systems for effective oxidation and.