Nickel Uncovered: Your Ultimate Information on Materials!

Nickel is both a very old and a very young metal. It is very old, since from the earliest times man has used meteoric iron containing 3 to 25% nickel to make weapons, and 235 BC the Bactrians used a natural alloy, pack-fong, with 20% nickel and 78% copper for their coins.

few informations on nickel

Nickel is also very young, having only entered industry in the 19th century, long after it was discovered by the chemist Axel Cronstedt in complex ores in Sweden around 1750.

The name nickel was given by Saxon miners who mined copper ore and sometimes extracted white metal instead of the yellow metal they expected. This white metal was given the name Kupfer Nickel, which means "mad copper" by old Nick, a mountain gnome.

Here is an article about aluminium

Nickel was first produced in the form of cupronickel and the first factory was set up in Saxony, in Suhl near Erfurt.

Around 1870, a small nickel production started in Norway (e.g. 360 t in 1876). In 1863, Jules Garnier discovered an oxidised nickel ore in New Caledonia near Noumea, later called garnierite, and mining began in 1877. Around 1886, the development of appropriate processing techniques made it possible to mine sulphide ores in Ontario, Canada, and to start supplying the market with significant quantities of nickel. Nickel production has grown steadily since then, reaching over 800,000 t in 1994.