[en] A series of gettering experiments has been carried out with a view to obtaining a better understanding of the gettering mechanism of Au atoms in silicon. Neutron activation techniques were used to study the yield of ion-implantation gettering of gold in gold-equilibrated silicon samples. The implantation species was bombarded by 100 keV neon ions to the doses 5 x 10¹⁵, 10¹⁶ and 5 x 10¹⁶ ions cm^-2. Next, annealing at temperatures 600^oC, 800^oC and 1000^oC, respectively was performed. The experimental results of gettering yield G_exp were compared with theoretical values G_the. In this paper we propose a gettering model based on the dissociative mechanism of diffusion. We suggest that, for temperatures up to about 900^oC, the predominant gettering of Au atoms is government by this mechanism. (Author)