Cyanide tailing is a kind of solid waste produced in the process of gold extraction from gold ore. In this paper, recovery of iron from cyanide tailings was studied with reduction roasting-water leaching process followed by magnetic separation. After analysis of chemical composition and crystalline phase, the effects of different parameters on recovery of iron were chiefly introduced. Systematic studies indicate that the high recovery rate and grade of magnetic concentrate of iron can be achieved under the following conditions: weight ratios of cyanide tailings/activated carbon/sodium carbonate/sodium sulfate, 100:10:3:10; temperature, 50 degrees C; time, 60 min at the reduction roasting stage; the liquid to solid ratio is 15:1 (ml/g), leaching at 60 degrees C for 5 min and stirring speed at 20 r/min at water-leaching; exciting current is 2 A at magnetic separation. The iron grade of magnetic concentrate was 59.11% and the recovery ratio was 75.12%. The mineralography of cyanide tailings, roasted product, water-leached sample, magnetic concentrate and magnetic tailings were studied by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) technique. The microstructures of above products except magnetic tailings were also analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS) to help understand the mechanism. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.