Gold adsorption from cyanide solution by bacterial (Bacillus subtilis), fungal (Penicillium chrysogenum) and seaweed (Sargassum fluitans) biomass was examined. At pH 2.0, these biomass types were capable of sequestering up to 8.0 mu mol g(-1), 7.2 mu mol g(-1) and 3.2 mu mol g(-1), respectively. An adverse effect of increasing solution ionic strength (NaNO3) on gold biosorption was observed. Gold-loaded biomass could be eluted with 0.1 mol dm(-3) NaOH with efficiencies higher than 90% at PPI 5.0 at the Solid-to-Liquid ratio, S/L, =4 (gdm(-3)). Cyanide mass balances for the adsorption, desorption as well as for the AVR process indicated the stability of the gold-cyanide which did not dissociate either upon acidification or upon binding by biomass functional groups. Gold biosorption mainly involved anionic AuCN2- species bound by ionizable biomass functional groups carrying a positive charge when protonated. FTIR analyses indicated that the main biomass functional groups involved in gold biosorption are most probably nitrogen-containing weak base groups. The present results confirmed that waste microbial biomaterials have some potential for removing and concentrating gold from solutions where it occurs as a gold-cyanide complex.