The anodic behavior of gold has been investigated in presence of chloride and/or water in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium methanesulfonate (BMI CH3SO3) ionic liquid (IL). The cyclic voltammetry (CVs) in presence of chloride ions shows two waves attributed to the oxidation of the gold electrode which occurs under two steps: the first one is attributed to the electrochemical dissolution of gold into to gold(I), while the second one is attributed to an overlap of the chloride oxidation step as well as the oxidation of Au(I) to Au(III). Furthermore the determination of water and chloride content in IL allowed observing that the passive layer induced by water could be removed under chloride. Thanks to those results we were able to clarify the conditions of gold recovering in this kind of electrolyte. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.