There have been many insightful advances that address the need for mercury-and cyanide-free gold recovery from both ore and e-waste. These techniques include leaching formulations containing thiosulfate, thiourea, ammonia, or reactive halide species, among other mercury-and cyanide-free reagents . Innovative gold sorbent and recovery technologies for removing gold salts from aqueous solutions have also been reported recently including Love's amide receptors and diamide precipitation technique , Queen's redox-active metal-organic framework (MOF)/polymer composites , Stoddart's molecular recognition strategy using cyclodextrin hosts , Hu's highly selective and high capacity polythioamide sorbents , and a reduced graphene oxide extraction method reported by Geim, Su, and Cheng . A recent study by Wang, Li, Bian and coworkers also reported a highly effective photocatalytic leaching and recovery process applicable to several precious metals in ore, e-waste and catalytic converters . All these studies provided intriguing scientific insights into the mechanism and selectivity of the gold recovery process. In some cases, compelling demonstrations of gold recovery from ewaste or ore samples were demonstrated . While all are important advances, these strategies still face the challenges of cost, throughput, and scale required for industrial deployment. Furthermore, any new technology designed for artisanal settings must be operationally simple.