A Nickel mine is a mine that produces nickel. Some mines produce nickel primarily, while some mines produce nickel as a side-product of some other metal that has a higher concentration in the ore.
Geology
Most of the world's nickel reserves are in form of lateritic nickel ore deposits. Historically these were also the first source of commercially mined nickel sulphide ores, so that currently most of the nickel which has ever been produced came from nickel sulphide ores. Strong weathering of ultramafic rocks at the earth's surface in humid conditions causes nickel resources to form inside nickel laterites. Laterites are formed by the breakdown of minerals which then leach into groundwater, the left-over minerals join together to form the new mineral known as laterites. Nickel is turned into useable quality ore grade by being merged into the newly formed stable minerals.
Exploitation
About 40% of the world’s nickel comes from exploitation of nickel laterites. There are two Hydrometallurgical methods to extract nickel and cobalt from nickel laterites, these processes are called sulphuric acid leaching and reduction roast-ammonia leaching. For high-magnesium silicates in lower profiles laterites the exploitation method used is smelting.
Reserves and operations
Reserves production
According to the intergovernmental International Nickel Study Group, the countries with the largest volume of nickel ore reserves are Australia, Brazil, Russia, New Caledonia, Cuba, and the Philippines. As of 2017, 33 countries produced nickel ore. Nickel production increased from 2000 to 2013, decreased from 2014 to 2016, and recovered from 2017 to 2018.
Largest mines and operators
As of 2017, the largest nickel mine operators are :
Other large nickle producers include Jinchuan Group Ltd., the largest nickle producer in China, and Sherritt, a Canadian company from Canada that refines nickel from lateritic ores and has operations in Canada, Cuba, Indonesia and Madagascar.
Usage
According to the intergovernmental International Nickel Study Group, as of 2017, an estimated 75% of primary nickel usage went to stainless steel; 3.7% went to the battery industry; and the remainder went to other applications.
Hazards
A study was conducted by scientists Dan et al on the effects of Nickel smelting fumes, to do this they did the study on NIH/3T3 cells and in the lung tissue of rats. They found that the fumes that the NIH/3T3 cells were transforming into malignant cells meaning that high exposure to Ni-smelting fumes may be harmful as Ni-smelting fumes may be a potential carcinogen in mammalian cells.
In the Philippines
In the 2000s, a nickel boom began centered around Claver, Surigao del Norte in the Philippines; in 2017, the government of the Philippines engaged in a crackdown against mine operators accused of violating environmental laws; the government closed the operations of 28 of the Philippine's 41 mining companies. As of 2018, the Philippines was the world's second-largest producer of nickel ore in 2018, after Indonesia; both countries have extensively supplied China, the world's largest purchaser of nickle ore. The two largest Philippine nickel companies are Nickel Asia Corp. and Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc.; both operate in the Surigao del Norte region.
Nickel mine pollution
From 1953 to 1958 Nickel Rim mines operating around Sudbury, Ontario deposited their mine tailings in an impoundment near the mine. The water in the impoundment was later tested and found to have low pH and high concentrations of iron, sulphur and dissolved metals such as aluminum and nickel. This is due to the oxidation of the tailings. The limited oxygen diffusing into the layers causes the tailings oxidize for a longer period of time, for this reason the water at the impoundment is going to discharge water with high concentrations of iron and sulphate for at least the next 50 years. A study found that the Mount Keith Nickel Mine which is an open pit mine in Western Australia is sequestering and storing large amounts of carbon dioxide through enhanced weathering of mineral waste, this means that this mean is offsetting approximately 11% of the annual greenhouse gas emissions released by this mine.
