A process for recovering one or more nonradioactive transition metal compounds from an ore containing one or more compounds of said transition metal or metals and further containing at least one complex of a member selected from the group consisting of uranium, thorium, radium, titanium, and rare earth metals, which comprises decomposing said ore in crushed condition by means of an acid so that a portion of the ore is brought into solution in a liquid phase and another portion of the ore remains in a solid phase, said compound or compounds of the transition metal or metals to be recovered passing into only the liquid or into only the solid phase, the uranium in the crushed ore being treated so as to cause substantially all of said uranium to be present in an oxidation state in which it cannot, during the decomposition step, pass into the phase containing the transition metal compound or compounds.