Nickel is a chemical element with the symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a shiny silver-white metal with a light golden hue. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile. Pure nickel, powder to maximize the reactive surface, shows a significant chemical activity, but the larger parts react slowly with air under standard conditions because an oxide layer forms on the surface and prevents corrosion (passivation)). Even so, the native pure nickel is found in the earth’s crust only in small quantities, usually in ultramafic rocks, and in the interiors of large iron and nickel meteorites that were not exposed to oxygen when they were outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

Meteoric nickel is found in combination with iron, a reflection of the origin of these elements as the main end products of supernova nucleosynthesis. It is believed that a mixture of iron and nickel constitutes the inner core of the Earth.

The use of nickel (as iron alloy and natural meteoric nickel) dates back to 3500 BC. Nickel was isolated for the first time and classified as a chemical element in 1751 by Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, who initially confused the mineral with a copper ore in the cobalt mines of Los, Hälsingland, Sweden. The name of the item comes from a rogue thief of German mining mythology, Nickel (similar to Old Nick), who personified the fact that copper and nickel minerals resisted the refinement of copper. An economically important nickel source is iron ore limonite, which often contains 1-2% nickel. Other important mineral minerals of nickel are pentlandite and a mixture of natural silicates rich in Ni known as garnierite. The main production sites include the region of Sudbury in Canada (withholding of meteoric origin), New Caledonia in the Pacific and Norilsk in Russia.

Nickel is a chemical element with the symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a shiny silver-white metal with a light golden hue. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile. Pure nickel, powder to maximize the reactive surface, shows a significant chemical activity, but the larger parts react slowly with air under standard conditions because an oxide layer forms on the surface and prevents corrosion (passivation)). Even so, the native pure nickel is found in the earth’s crust only in small quantities, usually in ultramafic rocks, and in the interiors of large iron and nickel meteorites that were not exposed to oxygen when they were outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

Meteoric nickel is found in combination with iron, a reflection of the origin of these elements as the main end products of supernova nucleosynthesis. It is believed that a mixture of iron and nickel constitutes the inner core of the Earth.

The use of nickel (as iron alloy and natural meteoric nickel) dates back to 3500 BC. Nickel was isolated for the first time and classified as a chemical element in 1751 by Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, who initially confused the mineral with a copper ore in the cobalt mines of Los, Hälsingland, Sweden. The name of the item comes from a rogue thief of German mining mythology, Nickel (similar to Old Nick), who personified the fact that copper and nickel minerals resisted the refinement of copper. An economically important nickel source is iron ore limonite, which often contains 1-2% nickel. Other important mineral minerals of nickel are pentlandite and a mixture of natural silicates rich in Ni known as garnierite. The main production sites include the region of Sudbury in Canada (withholding of meteoric origin), New Caledonia in the Pacific and Norilsk in Russia.