This method is an acid heap leaching method like that of the copper method in that it utilises sulfuric acid instead of cyanide solution to dissolve the target minerals from crushed ore. The amount of sulfuric acid required is much higher than for copper ores, as high as 1,000 kg of acid per tonne of ore, but 500 kg is more common. The method was originally patented by Australian miner BHP and is being commercialized by Cerro Matoso in Colombia, a wholly owned subsidiary of BHP; Vale in Brazil; and European Nickel for the rock laterite deposits of Turkey, Talvivaara mine in Finland, the Balkans, and the Philippines.  There currently are no operating commercial scale nickel laterite heap leach operations, but there is a sulphide HL operating in Finland.
Nickel recovery from the leach solutions is much more complex than for copper and requires various stages of iron and magnesium removal, and the process produces both leached ore residue ("ripios") and chemical precipitates from the recovery plant (principally iron oxide residues, magnesium sulfate and calcium sulfate) in roughly equal proportions.  Thus, a unique feature of nickel heap leaching is the need for a tailings disposal area.
The final product can be nickel hydroxide precipitates (NHP) or mixed metal hydroxide precipitates (MHP), which are then subject to conventional smelting to produce metallic nickel.