The copper recovery from acidified residue in gold smelters is studied,and the use of cyanide-containing wastewater for the copper recovery from acidified residue is proposed.The leaching conditions(leaching temperature,inital pH and leaching time)are controlled to suppress zinc and iron leaching and meet the goal of solution purification,which is convenient for subsequent copper enrichment and recovery.The study combined thermodynamic calculations and leaching experiments,and looked into the reaction pathways of copper leaching from acidified residue and zinc and iron purification.Thermodynamic calculations indicated that under alkaline conditions,when n(total cyanide)/n(Cu)is 1.71,cuprous thiocyanate was completely transformed into Cu-CN species in the presence of free cyanide ion;when n(total cyanide)/n(Zn)is 5.0,all cyanide complexes with zinc was stripped by copper,forming Cu-CN complex.When the leaching temperature is 333.15 K,initial pH is 11.0,leaching time is 120 min and liquid-solid ratio is 100∶1,the leaching rate of copper can be up to 99.72 %,and the mass concentration of zinc and iron,both of which precipitate in the form of Na₂Zn₃[Fe(CN)₆]₂ into the leaching residue,is nearly zero in the leaching solution.