Nigeria Nickel ore is a recent discovery. it has been confirmed that the deposit is large in various locations which can support large scale commercial mining. Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile. Pure nickel, powdered to maximize the reactive surface area, shows a significant chemical activity, but larger pieces are slow to react with air under standard conditions because an oxide layer forms on the surface and prevents further corrosion (passivation). Even so, pure native nickel is found in Earth’s crust only in tiny amounts, usually in ultramafic rocks and in the interiors of larger nickel–iron meteorites that were not exposed to oxygen when outside Earth’s atmosphere. Nickel is slowly oxidized by air at room temperature and is considered corrosion-resistant. Historically, it has been used for plating iron and brass, coating chemistry equipment, and manufacturing certain alloys that retain a high silvery polish, such as German silver. About 9% of world nickel production is still used for corrosion-resistant nickel plating.
Nickel is a silvery-white metal with a slight golden tinge that takes a high polish. It is one of only four elements that are magnetic at or near room temperature, the others being iron, cobalt and gadolinium. Its Curie temperature is 355 °C (671 °F), meaning that bulk nickel is non-magnetic above this temperature
OCCURANCE
On Earth, nickel occurs most often in combination with sulfur and iron in pentlandite, with sulfur in millerite, with arsenic in the mineral nickeline, and with arsenic and sulfur in nickel galena.[22] Nickel is commonly found in iron meteorites as the alloys kamacite and taenite.
The bulk of the nickel is mined from two types of ore deposits. The first is laterite, where the principal ore mineral mixtures are nickeliferous limonite, (Fe,Ni)O(OH), and garnierite (a mixture of various hydrous nickel and nickel-rich silicates). The second is magmatic sulfide deposits, where the principal ore mineral is pentlandite: (Ni,Fe)
EXTRACTION AND PURIFICATION
Nickel is obtained through extractive metallurgy. It is extracted from the ore by conventional roasting and reduction processes that yield a metal of greater than 75% purity. In many stainless steel applications, 75% pure nickel can be used without further purification, depending on the impurities. A second common refining process is leaching the metal matte into a nickel salt solution, followed by the electro-winning of the nickel from solution by plating it onto a cathode as electrolytic nickel. The purest metal is obtained from nickel oxide by the Mond process, which achieves a purity of greater than 99.99%.
APPLICATION
The global production of nickel is presently used as follows: 68% in stainless steel; 10% in nonferrous alloys; 9% in electroplating; 7% in alloy steel; 3% in foundries; and 4% other uses (including batteries).
Nickel is used in many specific and recognizable industrial and consumer products, including stainless steel, coinage, rechargeable batteries, electric guitar strings, microphone capsules, plating on plumbing fixtures, and special alloys such as permalloy, elinvar, and invar. It is used for plating and as a green tint in glass. Nickel is preeminently an alloy metal, and its chief use is in nickel steels and nickel cast irons, in which it typically increases the tensile strength, toughness, and elastic limit. It is widely used in many other alloys, including nickel brasses and bronzes and alloys with copper, chromium, aluminum, lead, cobalt, silver and gold
MARKET
Export of crude Nickel ore is good business but refining to obtain pure Nickel ready to be used is better although it requires enormous investment so also is the return on investment. World consumption of refined Nickel was 2.2 million metric tons in 2016. The leading refined Nickel consuming countries were China, the United States, and Japan. Demand for Nickel worldwide is expected to grow largely because of increased consumption in China, which is being driven by growth in the automobile and steel related businesses
REQUIREMENT AND CONDITIONS FOR MINING LEAD IN NIGERIA
There are two options available to a company or an individual to enter into the mining industry in Nigeria.
- Through the acquisition of an existing mining Lease from the original owner. Approval must be obtained from the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development for such a purchase.
- Fresh mining lease
Procedure for Mineral Title Licences/Leases and Permits:
- Duly completed application form
- Coordinates of the area of application
- Certificate of incorporation
- Attestation
- Letter of consent from landowner(s)/occupier(s)
- Types of minerals
- Work programme/pre-feasibility report
- Evidence of payment
- Technical capability
- Financial capability
In order to encourage investment in the solid minerals industry in Nigeria, Government is offering the following incentives
- 3-5 years Tax Holiday
- Deferred royalty payments
- Possible capitalization of expenditure on exploration and surveys
- Extension of infrastructure such as roads and electricity to mining sites, and provision of 100% foreign ownership of mining concerns.
The mining industry in Nigeria is regulated by the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act of 2007, National Minerals and Metals Policy 2008 and Nigerian Minerals and Mining Regulations 2011.
CONCLUSION
Business Advisory Network ‘BAN’ will work with you and assist you to process mining lease from the federal government. We will help you source for a site with rich mineral content. Mining is a technical field although the financial reward is enormous; therefore to succeed you need experts to guide you to avoid fatal mistakes that will erode your capital.
Other things BAN can do for you include but are not limited to helping you to determine the grade of Nickel ore at the site, source market for your mined minerals, both locally and internationally. BAN will also help you arrange security at your mining sites. It will interest you to know that export of refined pure Nickel is where you will make a kill. BAN will help you to set up a refinery for Nickel ore in Nigeria. The capital outlay for this is huge but even so much more is the return on investment. If we have refined 100% Nickel in Nigeria it will be easy for a Nigeria company to provide derivable products from Nickel.