Agricultural wastes have attracted attention as alternative precursors for the production of granular activated carbon. Using batch sorption studies, we demonstrated that granular activated carbon prepared through chemical activation using zinc chloride followed by physical activation in nitrogen environment at high temperatures can effectively adsorb aurocyanide from solution. Furthermore, gold recovery process using the granular activated carbon was amenable to optimization of adsorption parameters such as carbon dosage, initial aurocyanide concentration and contact time. These results may open new fronts on the application of low-cost granular activated carbon, particularly in the carbon-in-pulp metallurgical process.