Silk sericin and chitosan biosorbents are low cost and highly efficient biosorbents derived from waste biomass. Both biosorbents displayed good capacity and excellent selectivity for gold adsorption. Silk sericin and chitosan adsorbed respectively 1 and 3.3 mmol g(-1) of gold and have K-d values of 450 and 34,000, respectively. Experimental evidence showed that gold adsorbed on the amide groups of the silk sericin, while gold and copper adsorbed on the amino groups of chitosan via charge-interactions and complexation. Binary (Au-Cu), five (Au-Co-Ni-Cu-Zn) and six (Au-Pd-Co-Ni-Cu-Zn) component separations consistently showed that silk sericin has better selectivity (Sel(Au) > 2.4) than chitosan. It is possible to recover gold at 99.5% purity by silk sericin and 90% if the solution contained palladium. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.