Mining, Smelting and Refining of Nickel
There are many different nickel ores and many different ways to extract the nickel and other metals from those ores. The best single technical source of open information on these extractive technologies has been assembled by the European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau located in Seville, Spain.
The "Best Available Technology Reference Notes" or BREF Notes can be found at http://eippcb.jrc.es/pages/FActivities.htm. Click on the link labeled "non-ferrous metal processes to access the PDF relevant to the extractive methods relevant for nickel. Caution: the non-ferrous BREF note is over 1000 pages in length.
Also available at a cost of $40 from the United Nations Environment Programme/UNEP is Technical Report #15: Environmental Management of Nickel Production. It too takes a BAT approach to different nickel extractive processes. It can be ordered by going to http://www.uneptie.org/pc/mining/library/publications/tech_rep.htm
Both the European Union and UNEP compilations date from the early 1990s but are probably still the best starting points for technical information on the major nickel extractive processes.
Less technical in nature are the descriptions of nickel production contained in the nickel life cycle assessment (2000) prepared for the Nickel Institute by PricewaterhouseCoopers/Ecobilan:
Mining processes (PDF 216 kb)
Ore preparation/smelting (PDF 240 kb)
Refining (PDF 188 kb)
