Processing of silicate minerals

A process for the processing of silicate minerals, the process comprising passing an ore or concentrate (1) containing a silicate mineral to a pre-treatment phase, the pre-treatment phase including a size separation step (20) to produce a coarse fraction (4) and a fine fraction (5), whereafter the coarse fraction (4) is passed to an acid leach step (50, 60, 70, 80) in which the coarse fraction is contacted with at least sufficient acid, on a stoichiometric basis, to react with the mica rich mineral contained in both the coarse (4) and fine fractions (5), the fine fraction (5) subsequently being added to the acid leach step (70) whereby the mica in the fine fraction (5) is also leached, the leach step (50, 60, 70, 80) producing a leach slurry (15) that is passed to a separation step (90) forming a pregnant leach solution (17) and a leach residue (18), the pregnant leach solution (17) in turn being passed to one or more recovery steps. The leach residue (18) contains amorphous silica (23), and is passed to a treatment step (110) in which gangue minerals (24) are separated from the amorphous silica (23).