NICKEL.

BY W. P. BLAKE,

THE ORES OF NICKEL.

Nickel, next to iron, is one of the most universally disseminated metals. It is found not only in all the metalliferous regions of the known world, but also in the meteoric masses which fall to the earth's surface from the regions of space. Tissandier found it in the meteoric dust falling through the atmosphere, collected on a large porcelain surface, (a) and its presence in the sun is revealed to us by the spectroscope. It thus enters into the composition of other worlds than ours, and probably pervades the solar system. But notwithstanding this universal distribution, and the apparent abundance of this element, it is only a few years since the metal was first separated from its impurities in commercial quantities and utilized in its pure state without alloy or contamination by sulphur, arsenic, or other elements with which it is universally combined in its natural state. It has never been found in a fine metallic condition.

Geographical distribution.-The geographical distribution of the ores of nickel in the United States is more general than is commonly supposed. They occur in moderate quantity, in close association with chrome ores, in the serpentine rocks from Canada to Maryland, and equally so with the chrome ores of the Pacific coast, notably in Oregon. Dr. T. Sterry Hunt long ago pointed out the general diffusion of nickel throughout the magnesian rocks of the Quebec group.(b) He directed attention to the fact that both chromium and nickel are almost always present in the serpentine rocks of the Green Mountain series in the same geological horizon as the serpentines of Canada and of Norway. He says, also, that the serpentines of Cornwall, the Vosges, Mount Rosa, and of many other regions agree in containing chromium and nickel, and these elements are also found in the Urschiefer, or primitive schists of Norway. Nickel is seldom or never absent from the serpentines, steatites, diallages, and actinolites of the Quebec group, (c) and is found also in the associated dolomites in traces and in very small quantities in the magnesites of Sutton and at Bolton, and in the Laurentian gneiss on the Assumption river.

The element is also found to be closely associated with iron terresa Comptes Rendus, 83, 1876, 75.

b See Chemical and Geological Essays, p. 31; also, Reports of the Geological Survey of Canada.

c Geological Survey of Canada, pp. 506, 507.

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tially as well as in meteorites. Leaving out of view the great masses of metallic iron of Greenland (of which the Ovifat mass containing nickel is a familiar example, and the meteoric origin of which is still in doubt), we find that a nickeliferous limonite occurs in Lincoln county, North Carolina, and that similar ore is found in Michigan, from which a superior nickeliferous iron has been made. The spathic iron ore of Antwerp, New York, also contains nickel in the form of millerite, and no doubt many other examples might be found of the close terrestial association of nickel and iron.

The ancient rocks of Michigan and the Lake Superior region are also found to contain many deposits of nickel, and several localities have been noted and partially explored, but none have yet been worked with commercial success.

Further evidence of the general diffusion of nickel, and of its abundance in the Lake Superior region, is found in the results of analyses of the refined copper of Lake Superior. Egleston has shown that it exists in the copper in small quantities (a)

In New Mexico there are localities which it is said will furnish considerable quantities of 8 per cent. ore, and important localities are known to exist in Oregon, California, and in Nevada.

The most abundant ore of nickel is in the form of a mixture with pyrrhotite or magnetic iron pyrites, which is found more abundantly in the older crystalline rocks than in those of later formation. This form of nickel ore occurs in Canada, Vermont, Connecticut, in the highlands of the Hudson in New Jersey, and in Pennsylvania. It is abundant in Connecticut at Torrington and Litchfield, and in Pennsylvania at Lancaster Gap. These ores however seldom average over 2 per cent. of nickel as mined. Other nickel minerals of a higher percentage, but occurring in much smaller quantities, are found associated or occurring separately; as for example niccolite, containing about 44 per cent. of nickel and 56 per cent. of arsenic, at Chatham, Connecticut, together with breithauptite (nickel 31.43, antimony 68.57) and chathamite, containing nickel 9 to 10 per cent., with arsenic, sulphur, and iron. At Finksburg, Carroll county, Maryland, the species siegenite (cobalt pyrites) occurs with chalcopyrite, and it is cited as occurring also at Mine la Motte, Missouri. This species, which contains 29 to 30 per cent. of nickel, is found near Siegen, in Prussia, and in Sweden.

The presence of nickel in the serpentine rocks of Pennsylvania associated with chrome ores is well known by the beautiful green crusts on the massive chromite quarried at Wood's pit for the manufacture of bichromate of potash at Baltimore. These green crusts, known as "emerald nickel," consist chiefly of hydrous nickel carbonate, and are derived by infiltration from small granular nodules of nickel sulphide disseminated in the midst of a massive "violet talc" (kammererite)

a Transactions American Institute of Mining Engineers, Vol. IX., p. 728.

accompanying the chromite. Similar coatings of emerald nickel occur upon the chrome ores of southern Oregon and probably have a similar origin. This ore of nickel, though rich in the metal and very desirable, is not abundant enough to work, and has not been utilized except for cabinet specimens.

The most available ore of nickel and the only one worked up to this date in the United States is the sulphide, occurring in connection with magnetic pyrites. Although the amount of nickel rarely exceeds 3 per cent., the quantity of ore is so large and available and the sulphide ore is so readily smelted or enriched in nickel by roasting and matting that it is the most economical ore to treat for nickel. Until the discovery of large deposits of nickel silicate ore in New Caledonia, the sulphureted ore was the chief source of nickel in Europe and America, and it still continues to be worked. This is an ore which occurs at many places along the lines of the older or Archæan rocks, being found with the beds of pyrrhotite from Canada southward. The principal localities are, however, in Connecticut and Pennsylvania. These, and some other localities, will now be briefly noticed.

PRINCIPAL LOCALITIES OF NICKEL ORE IN AMERICA.

Chatham, Connecticut.-The locality at Chatham, Connecticut, about six miles from Middletown, yields both nickel and cobalt in combination with arsenic and sulphur. The ore occurs in mica slate. It is not now worked, but it was one of the first places explored for metals in New England. As early as the year 1661 the inhabitants of Middletown made a grant to "our much-honored governor, Mr. John Winthrop, for the discovery of mines and minerals and for the setting up of such works as shall be useful for the improvement of them." It is probable that the governor hoped to find silver, being misled by the white, shining ore. Neither nickel nor cobalt had then been discovered. About one hundred years later, in 1762, Dr. John Sebastian Stephanney, a German, reopened the old works, and in 1770 associated John Knool and Gominus Eskelens with him, and worked the mine for cobalt. In 1781, January 1, President Stiles of Yale College wrote in his diary that Mr. Eskelens had visited him "full of his cobalt mine and China voyage. He some years ago bought the Governor's Ring, as it is called, or a mountain in the northwest corner of East Haddam, comprehending about 800 acres, or about a square mile area. Here he finds plenty of cobalt, which he manufactures into smalt, with which is made the beautiful blue of chinaware." Some twenty tons of cobalt ore appear to have been shipped to China from this locality. Nothing more appears to have been done for thirty years. In 1818 Mr. Seth Hunt, of New Hampshire, worked the mine for three years, and expended about $20,000. The ore was taken to Glastenbury and stamped by hand. He obtained, as he supposed, about 1,000 pounds of cobalt and shipped it to England, where

it was found to be nickel, containing only a low percentage of cobalt. The difficulty in separating the nickel from the cobalt caused him to abandon the property. The mine was again reopened by Professor Charles U. Shepard in 1844, but with no greater success.

In 1853 an attempt was made to work the mine on a larger scale than before, and a company known as the "Chatham Cobalt Mining Com pany" was organized for the purpose. The assays made at the time upon the dressed ores show that they contained about 18 per cent. of nickel and cobalt, in nearly equal quantity, or 9 per cent. of each. The firm of William Coffin & Co., then operating in nickel at Camden, near Philadelphia, offered to take all the ore that could be produced, up to 200 tons annually, of that grade, and pay $200 per ton (of 2,240 pounds) for it on the wharf at Philadelphia. Cobalt at that time was worth 14 shillings sterling per pound, and nickel $1.70 per pound. According to a report by Mr. Simonin it appears that the average metallic contents of the ore as mined, before dressing, was 2.2 per cent. The property was examined and reported upon in 1855 by Prof. Jas. C. Booth, of the United States Mint, who found that the ore crushed and washed in a Bradford's ore separator yielded a product averaging about 20 per cent. of the oxides of nickel and cobalt in nearly equal parts. This company made a good display of the ores and products at the International Exhibition, New York, 1853. The second annual report of the company, by Dr. Francfort, the manager, though very complete as regards the amount of machinery and facilities for working brought together during the eighteen months after the organization, is silent as regards the produc tion, which it may be assumed was comparatively insignificant. The enterprise was soon after abandoned. It is believed that a small quantity of nickel from this source reached the Mint.

Other localities in Connecticut.-There are small quantities of nickel at other places in the ancient schists of Connecticut. The principal localities, however, are at Torrington, where nickel ore was once mined on a considerable scale, most of it being sent to England, but the undertaking was an unprofitable one, and was not long continued. The Litchfield nickel mine is about 10 miles further south, and yielded ores similar to those obtained at Lancaster Gap, in Pennsylvania. Neither of these localities have been worked for many years. The mines are full of water, and an old furnace formerly used for smelting the ore is in ruins.

Orford, Quebec.-The sulphuret of nickel (millerite) is found in the township of Orford, Province of Quebec, Canada, and has been described by Professor Hunt, (a) and later by Mr. W. E. C. Eustis, of Boston.(b) It is disseminated through a mixture of green chrome garnet with calespar and through the adjacent rock. The ore is very lean; 508 pounds run through the small blast furnace at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech

a Geology of Canada, 1863, p. 738.

b Transactions American Institute of Mining Engineers, Vol. VI., p. 209.

nology gave 8 pounds of matte, or alloy, containing 71.84 per cent. iron and 22.70 per cent. of nickel.

Thunder bay.—Mr. W. M. Courtis has directed attention to a nickel ore containing 4.50 per cent. of the metal, with some cobalt, from Silver Harbor, on the west side of Thunder bay, on the north shore of Lake Superior, and at other places inland. (a) The ore of Thunder bay is niccolite associated with native silver, and occurs in a vein traversing Huronian talcose slates. Another locality on Heron bay affords an ore containing silver and gold and 9 or 10 per cent. of cobalt and nickel.

Wallace mine.-Nickel ore occurs also on the north shore of Lake Huron, in Canada West, at the Wallace mine. Sir William Logan, the director of the geological survey of Canada in 1863, describes this ore as a fine steel-gray mixture, whose analysis, after deducting earthy matters derived from the gangue, gave, in 100 parts: Iron, 41.79; nickel, 13.93; arsenic, 6.02; sulphur, 38.16; copper, 0.10. Another sample specimen gave 8.26 per cent. of nickel. The nickel contains about three parts in a thousand of cobalt. This Wallace mine was originally opened and worked as a copper mine in the years 1848 and 1849. About three casks of nickel ore were taken out and shipped to a gentleman in New York, who had it smelted and a part of the product worked up into dish-covers, and sold the remainder for making nickel silver. (b) The ore occurs in quartzose and chloritic schists. A specimen analyzed by Messrs. Partz and Buck yielded 6.30 per cent. of nickel. A company was formed to work this property, but it did not succeed.

Mine la Motte, Missouri.-In Missouri the ancient Mine la Motte has furnished considerable ore, from which nickel is obtained in the form of matte, which is generally exported. Some of the earlier supplies of nickel at the Mint for the small nickel bronze coins were obtained from this source.

California.-Nickel ore occurs associated with chromite in Kern county, in this State, but this locality has hitherto furnished only samples.

Oregon.-A new deposit of nickel ore has recently been brought to notice, and is extremely interesting, inasmuch as the ore closely resembles the ores from New Caledonia. It is essentially a hydrated silicate of nickel oxide and contains from 20 to 30 per cent. of nickel oxide (in selected samples) and an average, perhaps, of 10 per cent., though the locality has not yet been sufficiently worked to determine satisfactorily what the ore will average in large quantities. The locality is in southern Oregon, in Douglas county, at Piney mountain, about 8 miles from Cañonville. It was discovered in 1881. It is described as corresponding exactly in its association and mode of occurrence with the description given by Professor Liverridge of the New Caledonia ores. These are found in serpentine with chromite and steatite. In Oregon the ore

a Transactions American Institute of Mining Engineers, Vol. I., pp. 482 and 484. b Vide report by Messrs. Partz and Buck, 1864.