Extracting gold from refractory gold ores is an inevitable trend in the development of the gold industry.However,how to recover gold from refractory gold ores in a green and efficient manner is one of the technical challenges currently.Therefore,the characteristics of refractory gold ores were summarized,the pretreatment technology for refractory gold ores and their current research status were reviewed,the research progress of the leaching processes was evaluated,and the features and reaction mechanisms of each method were analyzed as well as their benefits and limitations.In the meantime,the outlook is that the reasonable allocation of pretreatment technology and leaching method should be the development trend for green gold extraction from refractory ores.The research provides basis for further research and application of gold extraction technology.