Nick­el ores are an impor­tant source of nick­el, which is wide­ly used in met­al­lur­gy, the chem­i­cal indus­try, and alloy pro­duc­tion. In Ukraine, nick­el has sig­nif­i­cant nat­ur­al poten­tial due to deposits with diverse geo­log­i­cal char­ac­ter­is­tics. This sec­tion reviews the his­to­ry, key fea­tures, and main appli­ca­tions of nick­el ores.

Nick­el ores is includ­ed in the list of min­er­als of nation­al impor­tance, approved by Res­o­lu­tion of the Cab­i­net of Min­is­ters of Ukraine No. 827 of Decem­ber 12, 1994, as non-fer­rous met­al ores.

Nick­el is a sil­very-white met­al with a strong metal­lic lus­ter that slight­ly dulls upon expo­sure to air. It is hard, mal­leable, and duc­tile, and has a high melt­ing point. Nick­el is eas­i­ly machined and is a good con­duc­tor of heat and elec­tric­i­ty. Its Curie point is 360°C, mean­ing it is fer­ro­mag­net­ic at nor­mal tem­per­a­tures. Nick­el is chem­i­cal­ly sta­ble: at room tem­per­a­ture it forms a thin oxide film that pro­tects it from cor­ro­sion. It does not dis­solve in alka­lis and reacts slow­ly with acids. Native nick­el can be found in mete­orites.

The clarke val­ue of nick­el in the Earth’s crust is 0.0058%. The high­est con­cen­tra­tions are typ­i­cal of ultra­maf­ic rocks (up to 0.12%).
Com­mer­cial deposits are asso­ci­at­ed with mag­mat­ic sul­fide copper–nickel ores (pent­landite, chal­copy­rite, nick­el-bear­ing pyrrhotite) and sil­i­cate lat­erite ores of weath­er­ing crusts (gar­nierite, non­tron­ite, revdin­skyite).

Nick­el is pri­mar­i­ly used in the pro­duc­tion of alloy steels and spe­cial alloys. Alloys con­tain­ing chromi­um, tita­ni­um, and alu­minum are wide­ly applied in jet engine man­u­fac­tur­ing. In com­bi­na­tion with cobalt, nick­el forms hard and ultra-hard alloys. Nick­el-plat­ed prod­ucts exhib­it improved cor­ro­sion resis­tance and an attrac­tive aes­thet­ic appear­ance. Nick­el is also used in the food indus­try, chem­i­cal indus­try, and elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing (bat­ter­ies, cat­a­lysts, and var­i­ous chem­i­cal com­pounds).

In Ukraine, nick­el ores are pri­mar­i­ly of the sil­i­cate type, formed in the weath­er­ing crust of Pre­cam­bri­an ultra­maf­ic rocks. The main deposits are grouped into two regions — the Pobuzh and Tsert­siv groups.

The Pobuzh group of deposits (Kirovohrad region) includes the Pushkinske, Lypovenkivske, Dere­niukhtynske, Hrushkivske, and Ter­nu­vatske deposits. They are locat­ed with­in the Holo­vanivsk zone and cov­er an area of up to 500 km². Ore bod­ies extend up to 2 km in length with a thick­ness of 3–9 m. The aver­age nick­el con­tent is about 0.99%, with local enrich­ments reach­ing up to 5%. The main ore min­er­al is non­tron­ite, with addi­tion­al min­er­als includ­ing mont­mo­ril­lonite, chlo­rite, and oth­ers. The most promis­ing deposit in this group is the Ter­nu­vatske deposit, host­ed in a ser­pen­ti­nite mas­sif, with an aver­age nick­el con­tent of 0.91% and total reserves of 1.7 mil­lion tonnes.

The Tsert­siv group of deposits (Dnipropetro­vsk region) includes the Devladi­vske, Cher­vone, Ter­nivske, and Synel­nykivske deposits. The ore-bear­ing weath­er­ing crust here is com­posed of ser­pen­tinized dunites, peri­dotites, lher­zo­lites, and amphi­bo­lites, with nick­el con­tents rang­ing from 0.8% to 1.2%. Indi­vid­ual site reserves exceed 78,000 tonnes.

The Devladi­vske deposit is con­sid­ered the key one, with ore zones con­tain­ing 1.06–1.24% nick­el. Promis­ing areas for new dis­cov­er­ies also include the Pru­tivske deposit in the Zhy­to­myr region, asso­ci­at­ed with a Pro­tero­zoic mafic–ultramafic intru­sion.

Oth­er prospec­tive areas may be found with­in Pre­cam­bri­an intru­sive com­plex­es of the Ukrain­ian Shield that have not yet been thor­ough­ly explored.

Sul­fide ores are processed by flota­tion and smelt­ed in elec­tric fur­naces to pro­duce a mat­te, from which a copper–nickel alloy (fer­ronick­el or mat­te) is obtained. After cool­ing and addi­tion­al flota­tion, a con­cen­trate is pro­duced, which is then roast­ed to form NiO. It is sub­se­quent­ly reduced to crude nick­el and refined elec­trolyt­i­cal­ly.

Sil­i­cate ores are processed using hydromet­al­lur­gi­cal or pyromet­al­lur­gi­cal meth­ods, includ­ing auto­clave leach­ing, ammo­nia leach­ing, and smelt­ing with pyrite or flux­es.

Thus, nick­el is a strate­gic met­al for mod­ern indus­try. Ukraine has a num­ber of sil­i­cate-type deposits that hold poten­tial for devel­op­ing a domes­tic met­al­lur­gi­cal base. This could reduce import depen­dence and strength­en the nation­al econ­o­my.