have taken an active interest in the nickel industry. They organized a joint commission for its investigation, the report1 of which furnishes the most comprehensive view of the world nickel situation yet available. The British government has directly invested in shares of the British-American Nickel Company, and has negotiated European contracts for sale of nickel for this company. The Canadian government has exerted some pressure toward larger refining of nickel matte in Canada.
Geologic Features
The principal ore minerals are the nickel sulphides and arsenides (particularly pentlandite, but also millerite, niccolite, and others), which are found at Sudbury intergrown with the iron and copper sulphides, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite; and the hydrated nickel-magnesium silicates (garnierite and genthite), which are products of weathering. The richer ores of Canada contain about 5 or 6 per cent of nickel, the New Caledonian ores less than 2 per cent. The Sudbury ores carry also an average of about 1.5 per cent of copper.
Nickel, while present in the average igneous rock in greater amounts than copper, lead, or zinc, is apparently not so readily concentrated in nature as the other metals and is rarely found in workable deposits. The few ore bodies known have been formed as the result of unusual segregation of the nickel in highly magnesian igneous rock of the norite or gabbro type, at the time of its solidification or soon after; and in some cases, in order to produce the nickel ore, still further concentration by the agency of weathering has been necessary. Thus there are two main types of deposits.
The first, the sulphide type, is represented by the great ore bodies of the Sudbury district. These are situated in the basal portions