Abstract: System for recovering at least one of gold and silver from mine run dumps or crushed ores containing at least one of gold and silver, comprising an inclined surface for supporting a heap of the mine run dumps or crushed ores, means for distributing an alkali and cyanide containing aqueous solution onto the heap, a storage zone for the resulting pregnant solution arranged to collect the run-off of the solution from the inclined surface, a plurality of activated carbon loaded ion exchange vessels mounted on mobile support means, conduit means for feeding the pregnant solution serially through the vessels thereby to strip the gold and silver values from the solution and conduit means for recycling resulting barren solution for distribution onto the heap.