Rethinking gold mining wastewater treatment with an integrated process of membrane distillation and membrane contactors for minimal waste discard and resource recovery

•The integrated system outperformed isolated units in terms of wastewater valorization.•Mass transfer was limited by the membranes’ morphology (porosity and roughness).•It would be possible to convert 85% of the wastewater in high quality water for reuse.•Continuous extraction processes would be easier to scale to industrial reality.