The adsorption of cyanide-containing species on gold electrodeposits from alkaline solutions of potassium cyanide was studied by the radioactive labelling ( 1 4 C) method. In the potential E region in which gold does not dissolve or the dissolution rate is comparatively low (approximately up to -0.2 V(SHE)), the adsorption Γ shows little variation with the nature of the supporting electrolyte (0.1 M KOH, 0.1 M K 3 PO 4 and 0.1 M K 2 HPO 4 ) and the concentration of KOH (from 0.001 to 0.1 M). In this potential region the plots of Γ vs. logarithm of cyanide concentration are essentially linear and significant hysteresis is observed on the positive and negative going Γ vs. E plot. A peak of the surface concentration of the cyanide-containing species is observed on the positive going branch of the Γ vs. E plot in the potential region where the formation of Au(III) compounds takes place. In the original Kazarinov electrode lowering method, the background radiation was reduced to about 95% of the original signal.