Nickel is a corrosion resistant metal used in abundance in the industry. Regarding the lateritic occurrences, nickel is distributed in the mineral lattice in a substitutional manner and at low levels, which in turn makes mineral processing operations less effective for concentration. Thus, it is essential that chemical processing initiatives are established to increase the content of the metal of interest. From this perspective, the present master s thesis proposes to study the development of a pretreatment route based on the formation and selective solubilization of sulfates in order to verify operational conditions that allow the enrichment of nickel in the material of interest. In this context, a thermodynamic study was conducted in which the theoretical feasibility of using iron sulfate III as a SO4 source for the formation of Ni, Co, Al, Mg and Ca sulfates was verified. The experimental roasting study was conducted in muffle furnace in times of 30 and 60 minutes, different mixtures with different proportions of Fe2(SO4)3, at temperatures ranging from 500 celsius degrees to 900 celsius degrees. Then, the reaction product was solubilized in water at 80 celsius degrees for 1 hour. It was observed at 700 celsius degrees for a residence time of 30 minutes, given an excess of 30 percent of iron sulfate III, a recovery of 34 percent of nickel, 68 percent of cobalt and 58 percent of magnesium, according to analysis in ICP-OES. An interesting point of the study is associated with the formation of extraction liquors without the presence of iron, whether it comes from laterites or from the roasting reagent. The route is promising as an initial stage for processing, especially regarding to the concentration of more than half of the Co content in a stream, particularly in the case of an ore rich in Fe and Si.