END PRODUCTS

Vale Inco Nouvelle-Calédonie’s extraction process enables the production of nickel in the form of spherical granules consisting of successive layers, a little like pearls, producing small grey balls, round and solid. Hydrochloric acid is recycled to the first stage of solvent extraction.

The cobalt chloride is neutralised by the addition of sodium carbonate (soda) to form a pulp of recovered cobalt carbonate crystals following decantation and filtration in the form of a purple in coloured powder.

Nickel

Nickel is a silvery white metal with a polished sparkle, which is hard but malleable and provides very good resistance to corrosion and high temperatures.

History of nickel:

Nickel was discovered by a Swedish chemist in 1751. Historically, ores containing nickel were used to colour glass green. With the progressive acquisition of new knowledge of its physical and chemical properties, nickel was used in a great many industrial applications, particularly in alloys with other metals used at the time in the manufacture of coins.

Uses of nickel:

Nickel has very diverse uses. It is sought after for its qualities of resistance (particularly to heat) and 60% of nickel production is used in the manufacture of stainless steel. It is used in very many fields such as electronics (telecoms), construction, the aeronautical industry, tableware, etc.

Nickel is found in a very wide range of products, from rechargeable batteries to surgical equipment, fuel cells, jet engines, processing plant equipment, utensils and even kitchen sinks. Applications using nickel in its pure state are rare, this metal nearly always being used in the form of an alloy with other components.

The stainless steel industry is by far the greatest consumer of nickel. In the biggest Western countries, nearly 65% of nickel produced is used in the manufacture of stainless steel. In this context, it is mixed with iron, chromium and sometimes molybdenum.

Nickel is also very much used in the manufacture of other alloys and superalloys (particularly those resistant to high temperatures) and in nickel-plating. Nickel plays a crucial role in the manufacture of several products: without it, the performance of products would be reduced or their cost much higher.

Nickel resources

Nickel exploitation takes place across the whole world. The great proportion of nickel production in the world is drawn from two types of ore: sulphides and laterites (or oxide ores).

Deposits of nickel sulphide essentially result from volcanic activity and are often found at great depth. Some deposits of sulphide ore are found in meteor craters, such as the nickel-rich Sudbury basin in Ontario, Canada. Alternatively, laterite deposits are found on the surface and owe their origin to the process of changes in the rocky substratum over several million years. This is the case with New Caledonia. Nodules rich in nickel also exist beneath oceans.

According to estimates by the US Geological Survey, there are currently at least 130 million tonnes of terrestrial nickel resources around the world with an average nickel content of 1% or more. Laterite deposits provide over 60% of known nickel resources, the remainder being found for the most part in nickel sulphide deposits. Nevertheless, nickel production concentrates more on sulphide deposits.

Nickel production

Nearly 60% of primary nickel production comes from sulphides. Despite their rarity and the higher costs of exploitation than for laterites, metallurgical treatment of sulphide ores has generally proved less expensive and, as a result, several deposits have been the subject of larger mining operations. Since large-scale nickel production began towards the end of the 1800s, pyrometallurgy was, and continues to be, the most widely used method of processing in the production of primary nickel from sulphide ores and nickel-bearing laterites.

Nevertheless, the recent development of hydrometallurgy will now enable new laterite deposits, with fairly low nickel content, to be developed at competitive prices.

The some 60,000 tonnes of nickel in the form of nickel oxide to be produced using hydrometallurgy at the Vale Inco Nouvelle-Calédonie plant will contain from 70 to 80% nickel. This raw material will then be sent to processing plants outside the country, particularly in China, to be refined there and prepared in different forms and products adapted to the specific requirements of steelmakers.

Cobalt

Cobalt occurs naturally, representing around 0.002% of the earth’s crust. It is often associated with nickel, silver, lead and copper.

Uses

One of cobalt’s unique properties consists of providing alloys with resistance to heat and corrosion. Therefore it is used in the composition of many alloys used in the electrical, aeronautical and car industries (with chromium, nickel, molybdenum, beryllium, aluminium and copper), or very hard alloys for easier cutting (with chromium, molybdenum and tungsten). The inclusion of cobalt in the composition of these alloys represents 45 % of world cobalt usage. However, one of the most visible and everyday uses of cobalt is its presence in heating elements in electric ovens. 

It is also used in the manufacture of permanent magnets, refractory metals, pigments for glass and ceramics, siccatives and pigments in the painting and varnish industries, agricultural fertilisers and food additives for animals, and as a catalyst in organic chemistry.
The electronics industry has given cobalt a big upsurge and it is the fastest growing area of use. The manufacture of batteries alone represents 11 % of use.

Use

The United States continues to be the largest consumer of cobalt, followed by Europe. But cobalt usage is growing fast in Japan and more widely across the whole of Asia.

Production

Vale Inco recovers cobalt as a product derived from its processes to refine certain ores including nickel sulphide at Sudbury, Canada and laterites such as nickel in New Caledonia.  

Around 80 % of the nickel produced by Inco is sold, mostly as part of annual contracts, as a high level metal for superalloys or to be used in magnets. The remainder, around 20%, is sold as cobalt oxide, and that produced at Goro is sold in the form of cobalt carbonate for the chemical industry and as a pigment in the manufacture of ceramics and paint.

The Vale Inco Nouvelle-Calédonie plant will produce around 5,000 tonnes of cobalt annually, that is, around 20% of world production. This cobalt carbonate will be used in pigments for paint, but particularly in the manufacture of batteries including for cameras, videos and mobile phones.