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Nickel

Nickel is a hard, tough, malleable, ductile, lustrous, silver-grey metal with a face-centered cubic crystalline structure. It is ferromagnetic and has an electrical conductivity, which is about one-six of that of copper.

Nickel may occasionally occur in the native state (it is found in association with iron in many meteorites) but most of the time it occurs combined with sulfur in millerite, with arsenic in the mineral niccolite and with arsenic and sulphur in nickel glance.

The most widely distributed mineral is pentlandite (Fe,Ni)9S8, which is often associated with pyrrhotite FeS and Chalcopyrite CuFeS2. The sulphide ores are easy to concentrate and account for the major part of the nickel produced in Australia, Canada and Siberia.

Lateritic oxide minerals are another majoir source of nickel. They cannot be enriched, however, so the ores must be processed in their original condition.
The cost of producing nickel from sulphide ores is higher, due to the high cost of underground mining. On the other side, sulphide ores contain more recoverable by-products, such as the platinum-group metals, so they are less dependent on economic cycles.

Nickel can also be extracted from deep-sea-nodules, which may contain up to 1,3% Ni.
About 65% of the nickel consumed in the Western World is used to make austenitic stainless steel. Another 12% goes into superalloys (metal mixtures designed to withstand extremely high temperatures and/or pressures, or to have high electrical conductivity). The remaining 23% of consumption is divided between alloy steels, rechargeable batteries, catalysts and other chemicals, coinage, foundry products, and plating. Divided nickel is a catalyst for hydrogenating vegetable oils.


Links:
-International Nickel Study Group - Statistics 2000 - 2003
-The Nickel Institute
-NIPERA-The Nickel Producers Environmental Research Association




Nickel Production
Thousand Tonnes

 
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Europe
Finland
3.400
3.400
3.000
3.600
4.000
Greece
18.116
23.000
18.224
18.668
16.620
Macedonia
4.900
7.800
10.900
15.000
15.000
Norway
181
342
362
400
400
Poland
1.900
700
700
600
530
Russia (Europe)
31.500
31.500
32.000
28.000
27.700
Spain
0
5.380
6.398
6.630
8.136
Turkey
0
700
1.900
6.000
8.100
Yugoslavia
0
0
0
0
0
total
59.997
72.822
73.484
78.898
80.486
 
Africa    
Botswana
22.300
28.200
26.800
22.844
22.900
Morocco
100
100
100
100
100
South Africa
39.900
42.392
41.756
37.889
31.700
Zimbabwe
9.800
9.300
8.800
8.600
6.400
total
72.100
79.992
77.456
69.433
61.100
         
Asia        
China
75.600
72.700
68.900
70.200
71.000
Indonesia
142.700
150.000
150.000
188.400
180.300
Kazakhstan
0
500
1.000
1.200
1.600
Philippines
17.000
25.902
64.705
91.400
83.900
Russia (Asia)
283.500
283.500
288.000
251.800
249.300
total
518.800
532.602
572.605
603.000
586.100
         
America        
Brazil
44.900
36.600
42.600
38.400
38.400
Canada
186.700
199.900
232.900
254.800
259.588
Colombia
75.100
89.000
94.100
100.500
77.000
Cuba
71.900
73.800
73.400
73.900
67.300
Dominican Republic
29.500
28.700
29.700
29.100
18.800
Venezuela
17.400
16.900
16.600
15.700
10.900
total
425.500
444.900
489.300
512.400
471.988
         
Oceania        
Australia
187.000
189.000
185.000
183.000
202.000
New Caledonia
119.200
111.900
103.000
125.211
102.000
total
306.200
300.900
288.000
308.211
304.000
 
WORLD TOTAL
1.382.597
1.431.216
1.500.845
1.571.942
1.503.674