Au/alpha-Fe2O3 catalysts have been prepared by deposition -precipitation. The support alpha-Fe2O3 has been previously synthesized by precipitation technique. The effect of thermal treatment on structural, morphological and redox properties of Au/a-Fe2O3 samples have been thoroughly studied for the samples calcined at 150, 200 and 300 degrees C, together with a non calcined sample. Their catalytic activity toward CO oxidation in the presence of hydrogen (CO-PROX) has been tested. The results showed that the gold particle size and surface adsorbed oxygen changed with the calcination temperature, being the minimum for the sample calcined at 200 degrees C. There was not detected cationic gold by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) in none of the samples. The presence of gold promoted notably the reduction of the iron oxide. The highest activity for CO-PROX was achieved by the non -calcined catalysts (simply dried at 110 degrees C), while the sample calcined at 200 degrees C was the least active. The catalysts activity was assigned to the gold particle size and surface adsorbed oxygen. (C) 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.