A chlorination roasting process was proposed to recover rubidium from the distinctive rubidium-containing kaolin ore. The rubidium ions which existed in the alumina octahedron of the phyllosilicates structure could be extracted effectively by using CaCl2 as chlorinating reagent due to formation of Ca(Al2Si2O8) phase in the chlorination process of kaolin ore, and the maximum extraction yield reached 96.95%. Additionally, the kinetics results of chlorination roasting of the kaolin ore showed that the extraction rate of rubidium was controlled by the chemical reaction, and the activation energy was found to be 40.13 kJ mol(-1) in the roasting temperature range of this study. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.