Abstract: Pretreatment is an effective method to improve the quality and recovery rate of gold concentrate. With the increasing proportions of refractory carbonaceous gold ore, it is difficult to obtain a higher gold leaching rate by the conventional pretreatment methods such as roasting, oxidation, covering inhibition and competitive adsorption. In this situation, flotation-roasting oxidation, microbial secondary oxidation and microbial chemical oxidation can be used to improve the recovery of gold and reduce the cost of treatment. In this paper, the mechanism of carbon robbing gold and the research progress of pretreatment technology of carbonaceous gold ore have been introduced. The advantages and disadvantages of the existing pretreatment methods and their applications are described. Meanwhile, the future directions of development are prospected.