Open pit/underground mining and mineral processing can generate large amounts of waste that
contains sulfide-type minerals such as pyrite (FeS2), and it can produce acid mine drainage (AMD)
when exposed to oxygen and water. This highly acidic wastewater contains heavy metals and this
is one of the most serious environmental issues after mining operations taking several decades to
completely remediate with high costs. For green mining, the present study focused on the
development of a recovery technique for gold from an eco-friendly solvent, thiosulfate, by utilising
mine wastes, tailings. First, gold recovery experiments in ammonium thiosulfate system were carried
out using model samples representatively present in tailings (ie SiO2, Al2O3, FeS2, Fe2O3, and
Fe3O4). The results showed that gold recoveries were negligible when using Al2O3, SiO2, Fe2O3,
and Fe3O4 while pyrite shows a recovery efficiency three-fold as high as the maximum recovery
efficiency when using others. Subsequently, the study also addressed the identification of the
recovery mechanisms and post-recover process. The results indicate that tailings can be sufficiently
utilised for gold recovery in the hydrometallurgy process and a further sustainable process can be
established.