A new method using non-salt roasting-alkaline leaching to treat vanadium slag was proposed in this study. The V(III) in vanadium slag is oxidized to V(V) by roasting and the latter can be effectively leached out as vanadate by alkaline leaching. This method possesses distinct advantage of being able to treat high-grade vanadium slag. For the South Africa high-grade vanadium slag, the maximum vanadium recovery of 98% was achieved when the reaction conditions were roasting temperature of 850 degrees C, roasting time of 2 h, alkali concentration of 30 wt. %, leaching temperature of 210 degrees C, and leaching time of 2 h. The roasting and leaching mechanisms have been well elucidated based on the XRD and SEM analysis results. The phases transitions of vanadium slag were clearly presented. This work has laid the foundation for the industrial application of non-salt roasting-alkaline leaching and provided new insights into effective extraction of high-grade vanadium slag.