NICKEL
Nickel was first described as element by Alex Fredrik Cornstedt in 1751. Before this date, the Chinese used nickel at copper-nickel alloys instead of silver. The largest application of nickel in the Western world was the nickel-copper-zinc alloy known as the German Silver in the 1820s. In 1857, coins of the One Cent made of copper-nickel alloy were put on the market by USA.
Nickel, with an abundance of 90 ppm, takes the 22nd order in Earth’s crust. On the other hand, the nucleus of the earth is composed of nickel and iron. In the meteorites falling into the earth, compounds such as nickel-iron alloys are frequently encountered.
Nickel is mainly found in two different kinds of deposits: laterite deposits, which are formed as a result of intensive weathering of ultramafic rocks, and related by interior mechanisms of earth as magmatic sulfide deposits. Nickel can also be found in manganese nodules and crusts on the deep sea floor, but currently these are not being mined. The main mineral sources of nickel are limonite, garnierite and pentlandite (Source: https://www.livescience.com/29327-nickel.html).
Nickel exists either sulfidic minerals (Canada, Russia and South Africa as pentlandite mineral) or lateritic minerals (New Caledonia, Indonesia, the Philippines, in countries such as Cuba and Turkey as oxides or silicates (saprolite) minerals) (Source: http://chem.libretexts.org).
Nowadays, the main areas of uses of nickel are:
Stainless steel (60%), Nickel based alloys-super alloys (14%), Alloy steels (9%), Electro plate coating (9%), Foundry (3%), Batteries -Nikel Cadmium (3%), Copper based alloys (1%), Catalyst (1%) (Source: Crundwell et al. 2011: Extractive Metallurgy of Nickel, Cobalt and Platinum- Group Metals). However, with the introduction of electric vehicles to the automative sector in recent years, there will be changes in these ratios and very important projections are made about the use of nickel and cobalt in vehicle batteries.
COBALT
Cobalt was firstly described as element by Georg Brandt in 1739. However, at least 2600 years ago, in ancient Egyptian tombs, cobalt bearing glazes were used on colored glass and pottery surfaces. The use of cobalt has been determined at Chinese pottery during the Tang and Ming dynasty periods (600-900 BC and 1350-1650 BC respectively).
Cobalt with 30 ppm abundancy is on 26th order in the earth's crust. According to the literature on mineral deposits, types of cobalt deposits are given as: nodules and shells at ocean floors, , Ni-Co laterites, magmatic Ni-Cu sulfide deposits, sedimentary rock-hosted deposits (such as stratiform copper deposits, Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) deposits, other carbonate hosted Cu-(Pb-2n) deposits), synsedimentary and/or diagenetic deposits, metasedimentary Co-Cu-Au deposits, Iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposits, Ag-Ni-Co-As-Bi elements vein deposits and hydrothermal deposits accompanied by ultramafic rocks. The largest deposits are located in Democratic Republic of Congo and forms 55% of all reserves. Other countries; can be cited as China, Canada, Russia, Zambia, Cuba, Australia, Brazil, New Caledonia and Morocco (Source: Hitzman, M. W et. al: 2017 Cobalt- Styles of Deposits and the Search for Primary Deposits USSR, OpenFile Report 2017- 1155).
As of 2018, the usage areas of cobalt are as follows:
While chemical applications found the most use with a ratio of 63%, these applications are: rechargeable battery components (44%), catalyzers (8%), coloring pigments (5%), other special chemicals (6%).
Metallurgical Applications forms 37% of total use with the main application areas of: Super alloys (17%), hard metals (9%), hard surface coating (3%), high-strength steels (5%), and magnets (3%). (Source: http: // www.cobaltinstitute.org).
In the cell / battery / accumulator sector, nickel-based batteries (both Ni-Cd and Ni-MH (Nickel Hydroxide mixture)), cobalt compounds are used as anode electrodes and as chemical precursors for the production of cobalt dihydroxide. The use of cobalt compounds are still in use to provide power to hybrid and electric vehicles (EV). In the next 10-15 years, this usage will be of utmost importance in rechargeable cell and batteries / accumulator and (Source: http: // www.cobaltinstitute.org).