About Nickel in Canada

In Canada, nickel occurs with varying amounts of sulphur, iron and copper, plus smaller amounts of other important by-product metals such as cobalt, gold, silver and platinum group metals. The ore is crystalline in structure and is called a sulphide. Sulphide ores are usually found in deeply extending veins, and are most often recovered by means of underground mining.

Coinage is an early use of nickel that has continued to grow over the years. While, the Canadian dime and quarter were made of pure nickel and the five-cent piece was made of cupro-nickel, they are now made by plating nickel onto steel.

The United States is Canada's largest customer for nickel and accounts for half of Canada's exports of refined nickel. About 40% of the nickel mined in Canada is refined in Norway and the United Kingdom.

Canada is the third largest nickel producer in the world after Russia and Australia. The next largest are New Caledonia and Indonesia.

History of Nickel

2001 marked the 250th anniversary of the discovery of nickel.

Although nickel has been found in metallic artifacts dating back more than 2,000 years, it was first identified by the Swedish chemist, Axel Cronstedt, in 1751. In the 19th century, it came to prominence in plating and in alloys such as nickel silver (German silver) in which it is alloyed with copper and zinc. Following the discovery of stainless steel early in the 20th century, nickel has enjoyed a very strong growth of demand and continues to do so.

Nickel is found in the first transition series of elements in the periodic table, and this position gives rise to its metallurgical make-up:

• has a high melting point of 1453°C
• forms an adherent oxide film
• resists corrosion by alkalis
• is face-centred cubic, conferring ductility
• forms alloys readily, both as solute and solvent
• is ferromagnetic at room temperature
• is readily deposited by electroplating
• exhibits catalytic behaviour

Nickel is a silvery white metal that takes on a high polish. It belongs to the transition metals, and is hard and ductile. It occurs most usually in combination with sulfur and iron in pentlandite, with sulfur in millerite, with arsenic in the mineral niccolite, and with arsenic and sulfur in nickel glance.

As it resists corrosion, this transition element is a popular constituent of coin currency. Nickel is used for plating iron, brass, etc., for chemical apparatus, and in certain alloys, such as German silver. It is magnetic, and is very frequently accompanied by cobalt, both being found in meteoric iron. Most of the world production of this element is used for nickel alloys it forms, especially many superalloys, and particularly stainless steel.

Biologically, nickel is essential to some species. Experiments have shown that chicks and rats raised on a nickel-deficient diet develop liver problems. This element is also an important component of some bacterial and plant enzymes. Although nickel is not an essential element for humans, nickel compounds are present in our diet.

Nickel-62 is the most stable nuclide of all the existing elements; it is more stable even than Iron-56.

Applications

Primary nickel can resist corrosion and maintains its physical and mechanical properties even when placed under extreme temperatures. When these properties were recognised, the development of primary nickel began. It was found that by combining primary nickel with steel, even in small quantities, the durability and strength of the steel increased significantly as did its resistance to corrosion. This partnership has remained and the production of stainless steel is now the single largest consumer of primary nickel today. This highly useful metal is also used in the production of many different metal alloys for specialised use.

Nickel is used in many industrial and consumer products, including stainless steel, magnets, coinage, and special alloys. It is also used for plating and as a green tint in glass. Nickel is pre-eminently an alloy metal, and its chief use is in the nickel steels and nickel cast irons, of which there are innumberable varieties. It is also widely used for many other alloys, such as nickel brasses and bronzes, and alloys with copper, chromium, aluminum, lead, cobalt, silver, and gold.

Nickel consumption can be summarized as: nickel steels (60%), nickel-copper alloys and nickel silver (14%), malleable nickel, nickel clad and Inconel (9%), plating (6%), nickel cast irons (3%), heat and electric resistance alloys (3%), nickel brasses and bronzes (2%), others (3%).

In the laboratory, nickel is frequently used as a catalyst for hydrogenation, most often using Raney nickel, a finely divided form of the metal.