Skeletal copper-chromia catalysts have been prepared by selective removal of aluminum from CuAl2 particles and precipitation of chromia in the residual Cu using a caustic solution containing a hexavalent chromium salt. The rates of leaching Al and deposition of chromia were both significantly affected by the reaction conditions. The rates of leaching Al and chromia deposition both increased with increasing temperature. Increasing sodium chromate concentrations in the leach liquor led to increased chromia deposition but inhibited the rate of leaching Al. Increasing NaOH concentrations reduced the rate of chromia deposition, while slightly increasing the rate of Al leaching up to about 6 M NaOH. Higher NaOH concentrations caused the Al leaching rate to decrease. Leaching of Al was found to be chemical reaction controlled and the kinetic data were found to fit a Shrinking Core model. The presence of sodium chromate in the caustic directly affected the value of the pre-exponential factor (k(o)) for leaching Al from the alloy. The activation energies for the leaching reaction in the presence and absence of sodium chromate were found to be 71.9 and 69.1 kJ mol(-1), respectively. The rate of deposition of chromia was fitted to an empirical model based on a function of the leach temperature and of both NaOH and Na2CrO4 concentrations in the leach liquor. The models for leaching of Al and deposition of chromia can be used to determine the conditions for optimizing the preparation of these novel Cu-Cr2O3 catalysts.