e interest in the nickel industry. They organized a joint
commission for its investigation, the report[31] 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 of a
great norite intrusive, and are ascribed to segregation of the sulphides
as the rock solidified. To some extent the segregation was aided by
mineralizing solutions following the crystallization of the magma, but
in general there is little evidence that the ores were deposited from
vagrant solutions of this kind (see pp. 34-35). These ores owe their
value to primary concentration; secondary transportation and
reprecipitation by surface waters has not been important. A small amount
of the green arsenate, annabergite or "nickel bloom," has been developed
by oxidation at the surface.

The second, the garnierite or "lateritic" type of nickel ores, is
somewhat more common and is represented by the depo