With the increasing awareness of preserving the environment, the need for other lixiviants in leaching processes has escalated. The investigation for lixiviants, especially for gold, has entailed mostly the halogen group. From the halogens, iodine forms the most stable gold complex. It is the aim of this paper to investigate the nature of the gold adsorbed from iodine/iodide solutions onto the surface of a coconut type activated carbon. Experimental results indicated that the state of the gold on the carbon surface was dependent on factors such as pH and level of dissolved oxygen. The pH level influenced the potential of the specific solution and hence affected the reduction/oxidation properties of the activated carbon. At a low pH the general potential of the activated carbon remained too high to induce reduction of the gold-iodide complex, while at a high pH the solution potential dropped enough for the reduction of the gold complex. Oxygen acts as an oxidant with certain active sites on the carbon and the carbon itself, thereby inducing higher adsorption which leads to the reduction of the gold complex to elemental gold, even at low pH levels. Scanning electron microscopy indicated the presence of elemental gold on the surface of the carbon.