Abstract: The gold grade of a tailings sample in Hubei is 0.325 g/t, with a carbon content of 0.49 %, belonging to typical low-grade carbonaceous gold ore. The mineralogy indicates that the main minerals in the ore are quartz, kaolinite, and illite, with 79.59 % of carbon distributed in organic carbon. Various leaching processes such as direct cyanide leaching, surface passivation-cyanide leaching, competitive adsorption-cyanide leaching, and chemical oxidation pre-treatment-cyanide leaching were employed, but the gold leaching rates were all less than 20 %. The preg-robbing performance test shows that the tailings have a preg-robbing index of 1.462 g/t, belonging to the medium preg-robbing category. The alkaline pressure pre-oxidation process significantly reduced the carbonaceous preg-robbing effect and increased gold leaching efficiency. Under specific conditions of grinding fineness at -0.074 mm with 80 % distribution, oxygen pressure of 1000 kPa, liquid-solid ratio of 2:1, sodium hydroxide dosage of 5 %, and pressure pre-oxidation time of 6 h at an agitation rate of 200 r/min, the gold leaching rate reached 64.15 % by alkaline pressure pre-oxidation-cyanide leaching.