A method for recovering base metal values from oxide ore is provided, where the ore includes a first group metal selected from iron, magnesium and aluminum and a second group metal selected from nickel, cobalt and copper. The method includes reducing ore particle size to suit the latter unit operations, favoring contact of the metal elements, contacting the ore with ferric or ferrous chloride, hydrated or anhydrous, to produce a mix of ore and iron(II or III) chloride, subjecting the mixture of the ore and ferric or ferrous chloride to enough energy to decompose the chlorides into hydrochloric acid and a iron oxide, contacting the readily-formed hydrochloric acid with the base metal oxides from the second group, forming their respective chlorides, selectively dissolve the produced base metal chlorides, leaving the metals as oxides and in the solid state, and recovering the dissolved base metal values from aqueous solution.