Copper-nickel ores

Silver occurs native and in ores such as argentite (Ag2S) and horn silver (AgCl) lead, lead-zinc, copper, gold, and copper-nickel ores are principal sources. Mexico, Canada, Peru, and the U.S. are the principal silver producers in the western hemisphere. 

Although estimates of their abundances vary considerably, Pd and Pt (approximately 0.015 and 0.01 ppm respectively) are much rarer than Ni. They are generally associated with the other platinum metals and occur either native in placer (i.e. alluvial) deposits or as sulfides or arsenides in Ni, Cu and Fe sulfide ores. Until the 1820s all platinum metals came from South America, but in 1819 the first of a series of rich placer deposits which were to make Russia the chief source of the metals for the next century, was discovered in the Urals. More recently however, the copper-nickel ores in South Africa and Russia (where the Noril sk-Talnakh deposits are well inside the Arctic Circle) have become the major sources, supplemented by supplies from Sudbury. 

Beaver ponds downstream from an abandoned copper-nickel ore roast yard near Sudbury, Ontario, were devoid of fish and had reduced macroinvertebrate taxon richness and diversity when compared to upstream ponds. Nickel water concentrations, in pg Ni/L, were 57 in upstream ponds,... 

Fletcher, A. W. Hester, K. W. A new approach to copper-nickel ore processing. Paper presented at the Annual AIME Meeting, New York, February 1964. 

The first publication on CHIM (Ryss and Goldberg, 1973) contains some examples of the successful applications of the method. For ground mode CHIM these include investigations of known polymetallic ore bodies at Altay and the copper-nickel composition at depths of 10-100 m of ore bodies in the Kola peninsula. The detection of copper-nickel ores in boreholes by logging mode CHIM is demonstrated. 

Fig. 2-28. Results obtained by the MDE method over a sulphide copper-nickel ore body in Pechenga ore field, Kola peninsula, Russia 1- phyllites 2- peridotites 3- diabases 4- poor and rich ores.

Fig, 2-41. The CPC polarisation curves of sulphide ore bodies, Kola peninsula, Russia (A) copper-nickel ores (B) pyrrhotite mineralisation. 

Beaver ponds downstream from an abandoned copper-nickel ore roast yard near Sudbury, Ontario, were devoid of fish and had reduced macroinvertebrate taxon richness and diversity when compared to upstream ponds. Nickel water concentrations, in p,g Ni/L, were 57.0 in upstream ponds, 82.0 in downstream ponds, and 1800.0 at the station directly on the roast pit. Beavers (Castor canadensis) near nickel smelters had elevated luckel concentrations in livers and kidneys when compared to conspecifics from a reference site accumulations were attributed to food chain contamination. 

Natural occurrence. Rhodium is one of the rarest element in the Earth s crust with an abundance of 1 pg/kg (i.e., ppb wt.). Rhodium occurs in nature as a native metal along with other platinum-group metals in the native mineral iridosmine or in sulfide ores such as rhodite, sperrylite, and some copper-nickel ores. 

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