The ability of inherently conducting polymer (ICP) coated textiles to recover gold metal from aqueous solutions containing $[AuCl_4]^-$ was investigated. Nylon-lycra, nylon, acrylic, polyester and cotton were coated with a layer of polypyrrole (PPy) doped with 1,5-naphthalenedisulfonic acid (NDSA), 2-anthraquinonesulfonic acid (AQSA) or p-toluenesulfonic acid (pTS). Textiles coated with polyaniline (PAn) doped with chloride were also used. The highest gold capacity was displayed by PPy/NDSA/nylon-lycra, which exhibited a capacity of 115 mgAu/g coated textile, or 9700 mgAu/g polymer. Varying the underlying textile substrate or the ICP coating had a major effect on the gold capacity of the composites. Several ICP coated textiles recovered more than 90 % of the gold initially present in solutions containing 10 ppm $[AuCl_4]^-$ and 0.1 M HCl in less than 1 min. Both PPy/NDSA/nylon-lycra and PAn/Cl/nylon-lycra recovered approximately 60 % of the gold and none of the iron present in a solution containing 1 ppm $[AuCl_4]^-$, 1000 ppm $Fe^{3+}$ and 0.1 M HCl. The spontaneous and sustained recovery of gold metal from aqueous solutions containing $[AuCl_4]^-$ using ICP coated textiles has good prospects as a potential future technology.