The sputtering of gold by neon and xenon ions with energies from 40 to 100 eV has been measured by determining the change in electrical resistance of thin gold films. With xenon ions the yield is proportional to ion energy, and the value at 100 eV (0.14 atoms/ion) is lower than that found previously with argon. It is therefore concluded that factors other than the mass ratio of ion to target atom are important in determining low-energy sputtering yields. The variation of yield with ion current for 40-eV neon ions (cf. Scott, 1962) is confirmed, and pulsed currents have been used to investigate the hypothesis that this is due to excitation of an atom followed by ejection: the lifetime of the excited state is estimated to be less than 10−6 sec, which is inconsistent with the magnitude of the yield.