TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Components: The carbonaceous material is a petcoke. The alkali metal hydromethanation catalyst is a potassium hydromethanation catalyst.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Method: The char by-product withdrawn from the hydromethanation is quenched by contacting the char by-product with an aqueous quench stream. Where a quenched char slurry is generated by the quenching step, which is contacted with a stream of carbon dioxide, followed by a stream of an oxygen-containing gas, and solid/liquid separation, to generate the alkali metal-depleted char stream and the aqueous alkali metal-enriched stream; or a quenched char slurry is generated by the quenching step, which is contacted with a stream of an oxygen-containing gas, optionally followed by a stream of carbon dioxide with pressure let down, and solid/liquid separation, to generate the alkali metal-depleted char stream and the aqueous alkali metal-enriched stream. The alkali metal-depleted char stream is treated by acid extraction to generate the nickel-enriched stream and the nickel-depleted char. The nickel-enriched stream is treated by electrodeposition to generate the nickel product stream. The alkali metal-depleted char stream is treated by ammonia extraction to generate the nickel-enriched stream and the nickel-depleted char. The nickel-enriched stream is treated by steam stripping to generate the nickel product stream. The nickel-containing carbonaceous material is also a vanadium-containing carbonaceous material, where the methane-enriched raw product gas stream, the nickel product stream and a vanadium product stream are produced by a method involving: preparing the catalyzed carbonaceous feedstock from the vanadium and nickel-containing carbonaceous material and the alkali metal hydromethanation catalyst; introducing the catalyzed carbonaceous feedstock into the hydromethanation reactor; reacting the catalyzed carbonaceous feedstock in the hydromethanation reactor in the presence of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and steam to produce the methane-enriched raw product gas and the solid by-product char; withdrawing the stream of the methane-enriched raw product gas from the hydromethanation reactor as the methane-enriched raw product gas stream; withdrawing the stream of the solid by-product char from the hydromethanation reactor, where the withdrawn solid by-product char comprises carbon and an inorganic ash containing the alkali metal content, the nickel content and a vanadium content; treating the withdrawn solid by-product char to generate an alkali metal and vanadium-depleted char stream, and an aqueous alkali metal and vanadium-enriched stream comprising water-soluble alkali metal compounds and water-soluble vanadium compounds, where the aqueous alkali metal and vanadium-enriched stream comprises at least a predominant portion of the alkali metal content and at least a predominant portion of the vanadium content of the withdrawn solid by-product char, and the alkali metal and vanadium-depleted char steam comprises a predominant portion of the nickel content of the withdrawn solid by-product char; separating the aqueous alkali metal and vanadium-enriched stream into a bleed stream and a catalyst recycle stream, where the bleed stream comprises a bleed vanadium content; recycling at least a portion of the catalyst recycle stream for use as the recycle catalyst; treating the bleed stream to generate a vanadium-enriched stream and a vanadium-depleted stream, where the enriched stream comprises at least a predominant portion of the bleed vanadium content; contacting the vanadium-enriched stream with an ammonia stream to generate an ammonium vanadate; recovering at least a predominant portion of the obtained ammonium vanadate as the vanadium product stream; treating the alkali metal and vanadium-depleted char stream to generate the nickel-enriched stream (s1) and the nickel-depleted char stream; and recovering at least a predominant portion of the nickel from the stream (s1) as the nickel product stream. Where a quenched char slurry is generated by the quenching step, which is contacted with a stream of carbon dioxide, followed by a stream of an oxygen-containing gas, followed by solid/liquid separation, to generate the alkali metal and vanadium-depleted char stream and the aqueous alkali metal and vanadium-enriched stream; or is contacted with a stream of an oxygen-containing gas, optionally followed by a stream of carbon dioxide with pressure let down, followed by solid/liquid separation, to generate the alkali metal and vanadium-depleted char stream and the aqueous alkali metal and vanadium-enriched stream. The catalyst recycle stream split from the aqueous alkali metal and vanadium-enriched stream comprises 75-95 wt.% of the aqueous alkali metal and vanadium-enriched stream. The bleed stream is subjected to a solvent extraction step to generate the vanadium-enriched stream and the vanadium-depleted stream. The vanadium-depleted stream is contacted with carbon dioxide to recover alkali metal content from the vanadium-depleted stream. At least a part of the recovered alkali metal content is used as recycle catalyst. The alkali metal and vanadium-depleted char stream is treated by acid extraction to generate the nickel-enriched stream and the nickel-depleted char. The alkali metal and vanadium-depleted char stream is treated by ammonia extraction to generate the nickel-enriched stream and the nickel-depleted char, where the nickel-enriched stream is treated by steam stripping to generate the nickel product stream. EXAMPLE - No suitable example given.