2. Nickel deposits

2.1 Nickel in the earth's crust

Although nickel is abundant in the universe (ranking 11th or 12th in the cosmos, and even 6th in meteorites, with a mass content of 1.7%), it is not very present in the earth's crust, ranking 24th in descending order of importance, with an average mass content of between 0.008 and 0.02%, depending on the author [2][3][4] .

However, nickel content is at least ten times higher in ultrabasic rocks, with a relatively constant level of 0.15 to 0.2%.

Table 1 lists the main nickel-rich minerals...