Political and commercial geology and the world's mineral resources
Science
Political and commercial geology and the world's mineral resources
Geology, Economic; Mines and mineral resources
=Nickel in Veins.=--Nickel occurs with other metals, precious or
semi-precious, in some vein deposits and is recovered as a by-product
in the treatment of ores from them. It is notably present in the
deposits at Cobalt, Ontario, and has been found in vein deposits in
the United States, France, Germany, Austria, Mexico and South America.
Several hundred tons are recovered annually in the refining of copper
produced in the United States.
Related to the vein deposit type of nickel-bearing ore are the galena
deposits disseminated through dolomite in southeastern Missouri. Iron,
copper, nickel, and cobalt sulphides occur with the galena. Years ago
nickel was recovered electrolytically from matte from these ores.
DEVELOPMENTS AND CHANGES IN KNOWN GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
In 1900 New Caledonia supplied 65 per cent. of the world’s production
and Ontario 35 per cent. Since then the world’s production has
increased six-fold, and Ontario, by the end of 1916, was producing 80
per cent. of the whole. This shows the trend of the industry. Recent
discoveries of ore in the Sudbury district and construction of new
smelters and refineries in Ontario to treat the ores indicate an
increasing dominance of the industry by that district. New Caledonia
has not the large ore bodies and is too far away to compete favorably
with Ontario, though work will continue there.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Refined nickel produced from the ores of New
Caledonia and Ontario, for five-year periods; the amounts are for the
calendar year indicated.]
Statistics of production and ore reserves in Ontario and New Caledonia
are shown graphically in figures 7 and 8.
Isolated nickel ore bodies of the sulphide type--that is, segregations
from basic igneous rocks, as at Sudbury--have been found in a number of
widely separated places. There is a distinct probability that others
exist and may be discovered. Such undiscovered deposits might even
contain more accessible ore, in the aggregate, than the total of the
mined and unmined ores of the Sudbury district, but in the light of
present knowledge this seems a remote possibility.
Other deposits of the New Caledonian and Cuban types will probably be
discovered, but it is doubtful if as large deposits of those types
remain to be found. In these the nickel has remained in the material
left as residuum from the partial or complete weathering by solution of
the original nickeliferous rock. This material lies at the surface and
covers relatively broad areas. Bodies of it are therefore not usually
difficult of discovery. They seem to be found most abundantly in warm
latitudes, where solution weathering has most easily gone on under
conditions favorable for preservation of the residuum.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--Nickel production, and nickel content of
reserves, in Ontario, New Caledonia, and Norway.]
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