Nickel

Primary Applications

Stainless steel, superalloys, batteries, electroplating, specialty alloys

Mining Significance

Nickel is produced mainly from two broad resource families: magmatic sulfide deposits and laterite deposits. In magmatic sulfides, pentlandite is a principal nickel-bearing mineral and commonly occurs with pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite; laterites host nickel in weathered oxide and silicate phases. The very different mineralogy of sulfides and laterites drives fundamentally different beneficiation and metallurgical flowsheets.

Industries

None listed

Nickel

58.69

Key Properties

Tough, ductile transition metal with good strength.
Highly resistant to corrosion and oxidation.
Ferromagnetic at room temperature.
Important alloying element for stainless steels and high-temperature superalloys.
Electrochemical properties make nickel important in several rechargeable battery chemistries.

Mining Targets

This element is often found in the following Deposit Types and Mineral targets.

Deposit Type: Magmatic Ni-Cu Sulfide - Nickel-copper sulfide deposits formed by segregation and concentration of sulfide liquids in mafic-ultramafic magmas.

Mineral: Pentlandite - (Fe,Ni)₉S₈ - Pentlandite is the principal nickel-bearing sulfide mineral in many magmatic Ni-Cu sulfide deposits.