  We present chemical elemental abundances for $36,561$ stars observed by the
RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE), an ambitious spectroscopic survey of our
Galaxy at Galactic latitudes $|$b$|>25^{\circ}$ and with magnitudes in the
range 9$<I_{DENIS}<$13. RAVE spectra cover the Ca-triplet region at
8410--8795\AA\ with resolving power R$\sim$7500. This first data release of the
RAVE chemical catalogue is complementary to the third RAVE data release of
radial velocities and stellar parameters, and it contains chemical abundances
for the elements Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Fe and Ni, with a mean error of $\sim$0.2
dex, as judged from accuracy tests performed on synthetic and real spectra.
Abundances are estimated through a dedicated processing pipeline in which the
curve of growth of individual lines is obtained from a library of
absorption-line equivalent widths to construct a model spectrum that is then
matched to the observed spectrum via a $\chi^2$-minimization technique. We plan
to extend this pipeline to include estimates for other elements, such as oxygen
and sulfur, in future data releases.
