Extraction of products from titanium-bearing minerals

A method of recovering titanium dioxide and aluminium sulphate from a particulate material comprising perovskite, said method comprising:

• a. contacting the particulate material comprising perovskite with sulphuric acid and heating to a maximum of 250 ° C. to form a sulphated mixture;
• b. filtering the sulphated mixture to produce a filter cake and a first permeate comprising sulphuric acid;
• c. contacting the filter cake with water to form a sulphated suspension comprising titanyl sulphate;
• d. filtering the sulphated suspension to produce a second permeate comprising at least titanyl sulphate, and a retentate comprising insoluble residue comprising calcium sulphate;
• e. contacting the second permeate comprising at least titanyl sulphate with water to produce a hydrolysis liquor;
• f. hydrolysing the titanyl sulphate;
• g. separating titanium dioxide hydrate from the hydrolysis liquor to produce a third permeate, and a retentate comprising titanium dioxide hydrate to recover the titanium dioxide hydrate;
• and
• h. precipitating aluminium sulphate from the second permeate from step d or the third permeate from step g;
• wherein step h. may be carried out after step d when using the second permeate or after step g to recover the aluminium sulphate when using the third permeate.