This paper describes an electroless gold plating process for particulate 316L stainless steel. The process is based on a mildly acidic gold sodium thiosulfate/ascorbic acid plating solution and is performed under an inert environment at room temperature. The process affords a gold deposition efficiency of similar to 50% as inferred from a modified tin chloride based spectrophotometric assay for gold ion concentration. Successful gold deposition depended on the removal of the thin, passivating surface oxide layer on the stainless steel; this was accomplished by an initial cleaning step with 2 M HCl. In situ cyclic voltammetry experiments on a stainless steel electrode and atomic force microscopy scans on small coupons were used to further characterize the oxide removal and gold deposition reactions.