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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

 
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Europe
Finland
1.916
2.027
2.893
3.229
3.480
Greece
13.462
17.126
17.675
19.229
18.000
18.116
Macedonia
0
0
5.100
5.500
5.700
Norway
2.287
2.499
1.540
1.300
800
Russia (Europe)
26.000
23.500
24.500
23.500
24.000
31.500
Yugoslavia
100
0
0
0
0
total
39.462
44.929
46.701
52.262
52.029
59.596
 
Africa
       
Botswana
15.820
22.898
22.115
23.972
31.000
37.100
South Africa
36.202
36.637
36.400
38.546
42.700
40.700
Zimbabwe
9.594
7.122
8.100
8.092
7.800
9.300
total
61.616
66.657
66.615
70.610
81.500
87.100
 
Asia
China
44.000
51.000
51.500
57.000
60.800
75.400
Indonesia
55.969
60.780
66.173
75.529
58.009
70.200
Philippines
9.374
17.000
24.500
28.000
22.518
20.000
Russia (Asia)
234.000
211.500
220.500
211.500
216.000
283.500
total
343.343
340.280
262.673
372.029
357.327
449.100
 
America
Brazil
32.268
32.000
33.601
29.950
36.000
33.112
Canada
176.749
181.027
184.000
178.000
155.007
181.885
Colombia
27.750
38.457
43.978
47.868
48.818
Cuba
68.000
68.500
72.600
73.000
78.000
75.000
Dominican Republic
25.000
27.850
21.779
23.500
27.400
35.000
Venezuela
2.400
10.600
1.200
17.900
20.000
total
302.017
339.527
361.037
349.628
362.175
393.815
           
Oceania
Australia
147.000
167.000
199.000
191.000
185.000
185.000
New Caledonia
110.000
127.000
118.000
99.000
111.900
122.000
total
257.000
294.000
317.000
290.000
296.900
307.000
 
WORLD TOTAL
1.603.781
1.719.673
1.833.699
1.796.558
1.804.158
1.777.526


Source: Österreichisches Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Arbeit (Federal Ministry for Economics and Labour of the Republic of Austria), World Mining Data, April 2006