· In this study, a twostage process was developed to concentrate and recover scandium from nickeliferous laterite ore. In the first step, carbothermic smelting was performed at 1400–1600 °C using lignite as a reductant and calcia and/or silica as a flux. This process resulted in a slag phase concentrated in Sc and a metallic iron phase enriched with nickel and cobalt. Under the optimum ...