100-522: The Kwinana Nickel Refinery is a nickel refinery in East Rockingham and Kwinana Beach, Western Australia . The refinery is operated by BHP and part of its Nickel West operations. Having originally been built by WMC Resources , it changed ownership in 2005 when BHP acquired WMC. Kwinana is part of BHP's Nickel West operations, which includes, apart from Kwinana, the Leinster Nickel Mine ,
200-406: A dual-listed company . In 2015, some BHP Billiton assets were demerged and rebranded as South32 , while a scaled-down BHP Billiton became BHP. In 2018, BHP Billiton Limited and BHP Billiton plc became BHP Group Limited and BHP Group plc, respectively. In January 2022, BHP relinquished its London Stock Exchange listing, becoming a solely Australian Securities Exchange-listed company. As of 2022, BHP
300-637: A half-dozen backers , including station manager George McCulloch (a young cousin of Victorian Premier Sir James McCulloch ), Rasp formed the Broken Hill Company staking out the entire Hill. As costs mounted during the ensuing months of fruitless search, three of the original seven (now remembered as the Syndicate of Seven ) sold their shares, so that, on the eve of the company's great success, there were nine shareholders, including Rasp, McCulloch, Philip Charly (aka Charley), David James, James Poole (five of
400-484: A matte for further refining. Hydrometallurgical techniques are also used. Most sulfide deposits have traditionally been processed by concentration through a froth flotation process followed by pyrometallurgical extraction. The nickel matte is further processed with the Sherritt-Gordon process . First, copper is removed by adding hydrogen sulfide , leaving a concentrate of cobalt and nickel. Then, solvent extraction
500-472: A $ 9.6 billion deal. In fiscal year 2021-2022, BHP's annual profit amounted to more than $ 34 billion (an increase of 34%) of $ 65 billion (an increase of 14%). The coal division's profits reached almost $ 9 billion (a loss of $ 577 million in 2022), with the BHP's iron ore division making $ 21.7 billion (a decrease of $ 4.6 billion since 2022). Profit growth allowed the company to pay a record dividend of $ 7.6 billion for
600-606: A 50/50 joint venture to hold the Filo del Sol (FDS) and Josemaria projects. Until January 2022, BHP was a dual-listed company ; the Australian BHP Billiton Limited and the British BHP Billiton plc were separately listed with separate shareholder bodies, while conducting business as one operation with identical boards of directors and a single management structure. The headquarters of BHP Billiton Limited and
700-554: A Canadian company, was one of three bidders for the mine, tendering the lowest offer, and returned the mine to production in 2011. Ravensthorpe cost BHP US$ 3.6 billion in write-downs when it was shut in January 2009 after less than a year of production. In January 2010, following the BHP Billiton purchase of Athabasca Potash for US$ 320m, The Economist reported that, by 2020, BHP Billiton could produce approximately 15 per cent of
800-451: A Queensland fertiliser plant. The takeover achieved 90 per cent acceptance on 17 June 2005, and 100 per cent ownership was announced on 2 August 2005, achieved through compulsory acquisition of the remaining 10 per cent of the shares. On 8 November 2007, BHP Billiton announced it was seeking to purchase rival mining group Rio Tinto Group in an all-share deal. The initial offer of 3.4 shares of BHP Billiton stock for each share of Rio Tinto
900-399: A compound, nickel has a number of niche chemical manufacturing uses, such as a catalyst for hydrogenation , cathodes for rechargeable batteries, pigments and metal surface treatments. Nickel is an essential nutrient for some microorganisms and plants that have enzymes with nickel as an active site . Nickel is a silvery-white metal with a slight golden tinge that takes a high polish. It
1000-518: A consequent drop in nickel prices, BHP announced on 11 July 2024 that it would temporarily close all of its Nickel West operations in October 2024 and place them in care and maintenance . This decision is scheduled to be reviewed in February 2027 but BHP would continue to spend $ 450 million annually on its nickel operations to facilitate a potential restart. The decision was estimated to affect 1,600 workers and
1100-694: A fine of $ 25 million to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in 2015 in connection with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act related to its "hospitality program" at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing . BHP Billiton invited 176 government and state-owned-enterprise officials to attend the Games on an all-expenses-paid package. While BHP Billiton claimed to have compliance processes in place to avoid conflicts of interest,
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#17328978115011200-545: A freeze on approving any major new expansion projects. Days after announcing the Olympic Dam pull-out, BHP Billiton announced that it was selling its Yeelirrie Uranium Project to Canadian Cameco for a fee of around $ 430 million. The sale was part of a broader move to step away from resource expansion in Australia. On 19 August 2014, BHP Billiton announced it would create an independent global metals and mining company based on
1300-525: A lot of interest when exhibited at the City of Melbourne Bank in Collins Street . Some sceptics asserted the promoters were merely using silver from somewhere else, to ramp up the shares.... Another shareholder, the dominating W. R. Wilson had had to lend William Jamieson , General Manager, a new suit so he could take the first prospectus, printed at Silverton near Broken Hill on 20 June 1885, to Adelaide to start
1400-408: A major workers' strike and forced the company to declare force majeure on two shipments, which drove copper prices up by 4%. In April 2017 activist hedge fund manager Elliott Advisors proposed a plan for BHP Billiton to spin off its American petroleum assets and significantly restructure the business, including the scrapping of its dual Sydney-London listing, suggesting shares be offered only in
1500-702: A public controversy regarding the problems of people with nickel allergy . An estimated 3.6 million tonnes (t) of nickel per year are mined worldwide; Indonesia (1,800,000 t), the Philippines (400,000 t), Russia (200,000 t), New Caledonia ( France ) (230,000 t), Canada (180,000 t) and Australia (160,000 t) are the largest producers as of 2023. The largest nickel deposits in non-Russian Europe are in Finland and Greece . Identified land-based sources averaging at least 1% nickel contain at least 130 million tonnes of nickel. About 60%
1600-639: A record high of A$ 48.90 following speculation that Chinese mining firm Chinalco was considering purchasing a large stake. As global nickel prices fell, on 25 November 2008, Billiton announced that it would drop its A$ 66 billion takeover of rival Rio Tinto Group, stating that the "risks to shareholder value" would "increase" to "an unacceptable level" due to the 2007–2008 financial crisis . On 21 January 2009, BHP Billiton then announced that Ravensthorpe Nickel Mine in Western Australia would cease operations, ending shipments of ore from Ravensthorpe to
1700-645: A selection of its aluminium, coal, manganese, nickel, and silver assets. The newly formed entity, named South32 , was subsequently demerged with listings on the Australian Securities Exchange the JSE and the London Stock Exchange . In 2015, BHP Billiton spun off a number of its subsidiaries in South Africa and Southern Africa to form a new company known as South32. BHP Billiton agreed to pay
1800-449: A slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal . Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slow to react with air under standard conditions because a passivation layer of nickel oxide forms on the surface that prevents further corrosion. Even so, pure native nickel is found in Earth's crust only in tiny amounts, usually in ultramafic rocks , and in
1900-448: A tailings disposal area at Baldivis , which also received complaints from a local neighbour, a problem that WMC solved by buying them out. Of greater concern was seepage from the tailings into the ground water, which posed a direct thread to the near-by Lake Cooloongup . Eventually, the solution selected to solve this problem was to transport the tailings back to Kambalda and store them there. On 9 June 1978, two employees were killed at
2000-819: A year over 10 years to develop the field and triple production. On 14 July 2011, BHP Billiton announced that it would acquire Petrohawk Energy of the United States for approximately $ 12.1 billion in cash, considerably expanding its shale natural gas resources in an offer of $ US38.75 per share. On 22 August 2012, BHP Billiton announced that it was delaying its US$ 20 billion (£12 billion) Olympic Dam copper mine expansion project in South Australia to study less capital intensive options, deferring its dual harbour strategy at West Australian Iron Ore and slowing down its Potash growth option in Canada. The company simultaneously announced
2100-497: Is Ni with 28 protons and 50 neutrons. Both are therefore unusually stable for nuclei with so large a proton–neutron imbalance . Nickel-63 is a contaminant found in the support structure of nuclear reactors. It is produced through neutron capture by nickel-62. Small amounts have also been found near nuclear weapon test sites in the South Pacific. Nickel ores are classified as oxides or sulfides. Oxides include laterite , where
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#17328978115012200-411: Is $ 0.045 (90% of the face value). In the 21st century, the high price of nickel has led to some replacement of the metal in coins around the world. Coins still made with nickel alloys include one- and two- euro coins , 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, and $ 1 U.S. coins , and 20p, 50p, £1, and £2 UK coins . From 2012 on the nickel-alloy used for 5p and 10p UK coins was replaced with nickel-plated steel. This ignited
2300-417: Is a 3d 4s energy level, specifically the 3d ( F) 4s F, J = 4 level. However, each of these two configurations splits into several energy levels due to fine structure , and the two sets of energy levels overlap. The average energy of states with [Ar] 3d 4s is actually lower than the average energy of states with [Ar] 3d 4s . Therefore, the research literature on atomic calculations quotes
2400-714: Is a new nickel mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula . Construction was completed in 2013, and operations began in the third quarter of 2014. In the first full year of operation, the Eagle Mine produced 18,000 t. Nickel is obtained through extractive metallurgy : it is extracted from ore by conventional roasting and reduction processes that yield metal of greater than 75% purity. In many stainless steel applications, 75% pure nickel can be used without further purification, depending on impurities. Traditionally, most sulfide ores are processed using pyrometallurgical techniques to produce
2500-497: Is a volatile, highly toxic liquid at room temperature. On heating, the complex decomposes back to nickel and carbon monoxide: This behavior is exploited in the Mond process for purifying nickel, as described above. The related nickel(0) complex bis(cyclooctadiene)nickel(0) is a useful catalyst in organonickel chemistry because the cyclooctadiene (or cod ) ligands are easily displaced. Nickel(I) complexes are uncommon, but one example
2600-546: Is also formed in nickel distillation as a by-product, but it decomposes to tetracobalt dodecacarbonyl at the reaction temperature to give a non-volatile solid. BHP BHP Group Limited , also known as Broken Hill Proprietary Company and formerly as BHP Billiton is an Australian multinational mining and metals public company that was founded in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne , Australia. As of 2024, BHP
2700-611: Is currently being set in place by the International Seabed Authority to ensure that these nodules are collected in an environmentally conscientious manner while adhering to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals . The one place in the United States where nickel has been profitably mined is Riddle, Oregon , with several square miles of nickel-bearing garnierite surface deposits. The mine closed in 1987. The Eagle mine project
2800-470: Is greater than both Fe and Fe , more abundant nuclides often incorrectly cited as having the highest binding energy. Though this would seem to predict nickel as the most abundant heavy element in the universe, the high rate of photodisintegration of nickel in stellar interiors causes iron to be by far the most abundant. Nickel-60 is the daughter product of the extinct radionuclide Fe (half-life 2.6 million years). Due to
2900-558: Is in laterites and 40% is in sulfide deposits. Also, extensive nickel sources are found in the depths of the Pacific Ocean , especially in an area called the Clarion Clipperton Zone in the form of polymetallic nodules peppering the seafloor at 3.5–6 km below sea level . These nodules are composed of numerous rare-earth metals and are estimated to be 1.7% nickel. With advances in science and engineering , regulation
3000-455: Is now Syria have been found to contain as much as 2% nickel. Some ancient Chinese manuscripts suggest that "white copper" ( cupronickel , known as baitong ) was used there in 1700–1400 BCE. This Paktong white copper was exported to Britain as early as the 17th century, but the nickel content of this alloy was not discovered until 1822. Coins of nickel-copper alloy were minted by Bactrian kings Agathocles , Euthydemus II , and Pantaleon in
3100-434: Is now known as the mineral nickeline (formerly niccolite ), a nickel arsenide . In 1751, Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt tried to extract copper from kupfernickel at a cobalt mine in the village of Los, Sweden , and instead produced a white metal that he named nickel after the spirit that had given its name to the mineral. In modern German, Kupfernickel or Kupfer-Nickel designates the alloy cupronickel . Originally,
Kwinana Nickel Refinery - Misplaced Pages Continue
3200-412: Is one of only four elements that are ferromagnetic at or near room temperature; the others are iron, cobalt and gadolinium . Its Curie temperature is 355 °C (671 °F), meaning that bulk nickel is non-magnetic above this temperature. The unit cell of nickel is a face-centered cube ; it has lattice parameter of 0.352 nm, giving an atomic radius of 0.124 nm. This crystal structure
3300-469: Is produced by the silicon burning process and later set free in large amounts in type Ia supernovae . The shape of the light curve of these supernovae at intermediate to late-times corresponds to the decay via electron capture of Ni to cobalt -56 and ultimately to iron-56. Nickel-59 is a long-lived cosmogenic radionuclide ; half-life 76,000 years. Ni has found many applications in isotope geology . Ni has been used to date
3400-569: Is stable to pressures of at least 70 GPa. Nickel is hard, malleable and ductile , and has a relatively high electrical and thermal conductivity for transition metals. The high compressive strength of 34 GPa, predicted for ideal crystals, is never obtained in the real bulk material due to formation and movement of dislocations . However, it has been reached in Ni nanoparticles . Nickel has two atomic electron configurations , [Ar] 3d 4s and [Ar] 3d 4s , which are very close in energy; [Ar] denotes
3500-578: Is the largest company in Australia, and the largest mining company in the world, both as measured by market capitalization. In 2023, the company's position in the Forbes Global 2000 was 90th. Billiton Maatschappij was founded 29 September 1860, when its articles of association were approved by a meeting of shareholders in the Groot Keizershof hotel in The Hague , Netherlands. Two months later,
3600-446: Is the tetrahedral complex NiBr(PPh 3 ) 3 . Many nickel(I) complexes have Ni–Ni bonding, such as the dark red diamagnetic K 4 [Ni 2 (CN) 6 ] prepared by reduction of K 2 [Ni 2 (CN) 6 ] with sodium amalgam . This compound is oxidized in water, liberating H 2 . It is thought that the nickel(I) oxidation state is important to nickel-containing enzymes, such as [NiFe]-hydrogenase , which catalyzes
3700-475: Is used as the cathode in many rechargeable batteries , including nickel–cadmium , nickel–iron , nickel–hydrogen , and nickel–metal hydride , and used by certain manufacturers in Li-ion batteries . Ni(IV) remains a rare oxidation state and very few compounds are known. Ni(IV) occurs in the mixed oxide BaNiO 3 . Unintentional use of nickel can be traced back as far as 3500 BCE. Bronzes from what
3800-455: Is used chiefly in alloys and corrosion-resistant plating. About 68% of world production is used in stainless steel . A further 10% is used for nickel-based and copper-based alloys, 9% for plating, 7% for alloy steels, 3% in foundries, and 4% in other applications such as in rechargeable batteries, including those in electric vehicles (EVs). Nickel is widely used in coins , though nickel-plated objects sometimes provoke nickel allergy . As
3900-412: Is used to separate the cobalt and nickel, with the final nickel content greater than 86%. A second common refining process is leaching the metal matte into a nickel salt solution, followed by electrowinning the nickel from solution by plating it onto a cathode as electrolytic nickel. The purest metal is obtained from nickel oxide by the Mond process , which gives a purity of over 99.99%. The process
4000-646: The Mount Keith Mine , the Kambalda Nickel Concentrator and the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter . At Kwinana, nickel matte is refined into nickel powder and briquettes at a grade of 99.8 percent nickel. In late 2021, a nickel sulphate plant opened at the refinery, the first in Australia. Nickel sulphate is a key component of lithium-ion batteries , which are used to power electric vehicles. Soon after developing its Kambalda nickel deposit,
4100-587: The Western Mining Corporation , WMC, started looking into the possibility of producing refined nickel. The company decided to use the Sherritt Gordon hydrometallurgical ammonia-leach process for this purpose and selected Kwinana as the location for its new refinery, based on the availability of power and water supply, raw materials and the location in the Perth metropolitan region . The design process of
Kwinana Nickel Refinery - Misplaced Pages Continue
4200-467: The arsenide niccolite . Identified land-based resources throughout the world averaging 1% nickel or greater comprise at least 130 million tons of nickel (about the double of known reserves). About 60% is in laterites and 40% in sulfide deposits. On geophysical evidence, most of the nickel on Earth is believed to be in Earth's outer and inner cores . Kamacite and taenite are naturally occurring alloys of iron and nickel. For kamacite,
4300-484: The metal aquo complex [Ni(H 2 O) 6 ] . The four halides form nickel compounds, which are solids with molecules with octahedral Ni centres. Nickel(II) chloride is most common, and its behavior is illustrative of the other halides. Nickel(II) chloride is made by dissolving nickel or its oxide in hydrochloric acid . It is usually found as the green hexahydrate, whose formula is usually written NiCl 2 ·6H 2 O . When dissolved in water, this salt forms
4400-479: The metal aquo complex [Ni(H 2 O) 6 ] . Dehydration of NiCl 2 ·6H 2 O gives yellow anhydrous NiCl 2 . Some tetracoordinate nickel(II) complexes, e.g. bis(triphenylphosphine)nickel chloride , exist both in tetrahedral and square planar geometries. The tetrahedral complexes are paramagnetic ; the square planar complexes are diamagnetic . In having properties of magnetic equilibrium and formation of octahedral complexes, they contrast with
4500-606: The nickname "the Big Australian", was incorporated on 13 August 1885, operating the silver and lead mine at Broken Hill , in western New South Wales , Australia. The Broken Hill group floated on 10 August 1885. The first consignment of Broken Hill ore (48 tons, 5 cwt, 3grs) was smelted at the Intercolonial Smelting and Refining Company's works at Spotswood, Victoria , a suburb of Melbourne. Historian Christopher Jay notes: The resulting 35,605 ounces of silver raised
4600-489: The 12 percent nickel concentrate from the Kambalda Nickel Smelter. Processing of concentrate was eventually stopped altogether by 1986. At this point, the refinery had expanded to an annual capacity of 30 thousand tonnes (66 million pounds) of nickel. In the late 1980s, the refinery had a Carbon in pulp plant added which allowed it to produce 398 kilograms (12,810 ozt) of gold from refinery residues in
4700-833: The 1960s. BHP began to diversify into a variety of mining projects overseas. Those included the Ok Tedi copper mine in Papua New Guinea, where the company was successfully sued by the indigenous inhabitants because of the environmental degradation caused by mining operations. BHP had better success with the giant Escondida copper mine in Chile, of which it owns 57.5%, and at the Ekati Diamond Mine in northern Canada, which BHP contracted for in 1996, began mining in 1998, and sold its 80% stake in to Dominion Diamond Corporation in 2013 as production declined. In 2001, BHP merged with
4800-531: The 2nd century BCE, possibly out of the Chinese cupronickel. In medieval Germany, a metallic yellow mineral was found in the Ore Mountains that resembled copper ore. But when miners were unable to get any copper from it, they blamed a mischievous sprite of German mythology, Nickel (similar to Old Nick ), for besetting the copper. They called this ore Kupfernickel from German Kupfer 'copper'. This ore
4900-551: The BHP steelworks during the largely unsuccessful shelling of Newcastle . Newcastle operations were closed in 1999, and a 70-ton commemorative sculpture, The Muster Point , was installed on Industrial Drive, in the suburb of Mayfield, New South Wales . The long products side of the steel business was spun off to form OneSteel in 2000. In the 1950s, BHP began petroleum exploration, which became an increasing focus following oil and natural gas discoveries in Bass Strait in
5000-513: The Billiton mining company to form BHP Billiton. In 2002, flat steel products were demerged to form the publicly traded company BHP Steel which, in 2003, became BlueScope . In March 2005, BHP Billiton announced a US$ 7.3 billion agreed bid for WMC Resources , owners of the Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine in South Australia, nickel operations in Western Australia and Queensland, and
5100-580: The Kwinana expansion, A$ 127 million were spent on the expansion of the Leinster Nickel Mine as well as a planned A$ 230 million to be spent at Kambalda and Kalgoorlie. WMC had, prior to this, explored the prospect of finding refinery capacity outside of Australia, concerned by high gas prices, but dropped these plans when the Western Australian government made some concessions on the royalty payments of
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#17328978115015200-457: The SEC found that BHP Billiton had invited officials from at least four countries where BHP Billiton had interests in influencing the officials' decisions ( Congo , Guinea , Philippines and Burundi ). In August 2016, BHP Billiton recorded its worst annual loss in history, $ 6.4 billion. Towards the end of 2016 BHP Billiton indicated it would expand its petroleum business and make new investments in
5300-575: The United Kingdom, while leaving its headquarters and tax residences in Australia where shares would trade as depository instruments. At the time of the correspondence Elliott held about 4.1 per cent of the issued shares in London-listed BHP Billiton plc, worth $ 3.81 billion. Australia's government warned it would block moves to shift BHP Billiton's stock listing from Australia to the United Kingdom. Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison said
5400-498: The United States, the term "nickel" or "nick" originally applied to the copper-nickel Flying Eagle cent , which replaced copper with 12% nickel 1857–58, then the Indian Head cent of the same alloy from 1859 to 1864. Still later, in 1865, the term designated the three-cent nickel , with nickel increased to 25%. In 1866, the five-cent shield nickel (25% nickel, 75% copper) appropriated the designation, which has been used ever since for
5500-823: The Yabulu nickel plant in Queensland Australia. Yabulu refinery was subsequently sold to Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer , becoming the Palmer Nickel and Cobalt Refinery . Pinto Valley mine in the United States was also closed. Mine closures and general scaling back during the 2007–2008 financial crisis accounted for 6,000 employee lay offs. As the nickel market became saturated by both spiraling economics and cheaper extraction methods; on 9 December 2009, BHP Billiton sold its Ravensthorpe Nickel Mine , which had cost A$ 2.4 billion to build, to Vancouver -based First Quantum Minerals for US$ 340 million. First Quantum,
5600-497: The alloy is usually in the proportion of 90:10 to 95:5, though impurities (such as cobalt or carbon ) may be present. Taenite is 20% to 65% nickel. Kamacite and taenite are also found in nickel iron meteorites . Nickel is commonly found in iron meteorites as the alloys kamacite and taenite . Nickel in meteorites was first detected in 1799 by Joseph-Louis Proust , a French chemist who then worked in Spain. Proust analyzed samples of
5700-766: The company acquired mineral rights to the Billiton ( Belitung ) and Bangka Islands in the Netherlands Indies archipelago off the eastern coast of Sumatra . Billiton's initial ventures included tin and lead smelting in the Netherlands, followed in the 1940s by bauxite mining in Indonesia and Suriname . In 1970, Shell acquired Billiton. Billiton opened a tin smelting and refining plant in Phuket , Thailand, named Thaisarco (for Thailand Smelting And Refining Company, Limited). In 1994, South Africa's Gencor acquired
5800-603: The company ventured into steel manufacturing, with its operations based primarily at the Newcastle Steelworks . The decision to move from mining ore at Broken Hill to opening a steelworks at Newcastle was due to the technical limitations in recovering value from mining the lower-lying sulphide ores. The discovery of Iron Knob and Iron Monarch near the western shore of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia , combined with
5900-449: The company. By 1998, the refinery produced 53.7 thousand tonnes (118 million pounds) per year. In 2005, WMC Resources was acquired by BHP , which bundled WMC's nickel assets under its Nickel West brand, which became the largest nickel producer in the state, producing a combined 67 thousand tonnes (150 million pounds) out of the 180 thousand tonnes (400 million pounds) produced in Western Australia in 2004–05. At
6000-493: The company. Anderson successfully completed the four-year project with a merger between BHP and London-based Billiton. In July 2002, Brian Gilbertson of Billiton was appointed CEO, but resigned after just six months, citing irreconcilable differences with the board. Upon Gilbertson's departure in early 2003, Chip Goodyear was appointed the new CEO, increasing sales by 47 per cent and profits by 78 per cent during his tenure. Goodyear retired on 30 September 2007. Marius Kloppers
6100-464: The complete argon core structure. There is some disagreement on which configuration has the lower energy. Chemistry textbooks quote nickel's electron configuration as [Ar] 4s 3d , also written [Ar] 3d 4s . This configuration agrees with the Madelung energy ordering rule , which predicts that 4s is filled before 3d. It is supported by the experimental fact that the lowest energy state of the nickel atom
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#17328978115016200-484: The divalent complexes of the heavier group 10 metals, palladium(II) and platinum(II), which form only square-planar geometry. Nickelocene has an electron count of 20. Many chemical reactions of nickelocene tend to yield 18-electron products. Many Ni(III) compounds are known. Ni(III) forms simple salts with fluoride or oxide ions. Ni(III) can be stabilized by σ-donor ligands such as thiols and organophosphines . Ni(III) occurs in nickel oxide hydroxide , which
6300-691: The earth's crust exists as oxides, economically more important nickel ores are sulfides, especially pentlandite . Major production sites include the Sudbury region , Canada (which is thought to be of meteoric origin), New Caledonia in the Pacific , Western Australia , and Norilsk , Russia. Nickel is one of four elements (the others are iron , cobalt , and gadolinium ) that are ferromagnetic at about room temperature. Alnico permanent magnets based partly on nickel are of intermediate strength between iron-based permanent magnets and rare-earth magnets . The metal
6400-464: The first time. In September 1991, a A$ 50 million upgrade of the refinery was announced in an attempt to upsize the Western Australian nickel operations and make WMC the world's number two nickel producer. WMC was aiming to increase production to 90 thousand tonnes (200 million pounds) per annum by 1995, of which half was to be refined nickel, with Kwinana's output to be expanded to 42 thousand tonnes (93 million pounds). Alongside
6500-454: The float process. The geographic Broken Hill, for which the town was named, was discovered and named by Captain Charles Sturt , stirring great interest among prospectors. Nothing of note was discovered until 5 November 1883, when Charles Rasp , boundary rider for the surrounding Mount Gipps Station , pegged out a 40-acre claim with contractors David James and James Poole. Together with
6600-461: The following years until the gold content declined to a point were running the plant was uneconomically and it was dismantled. Reduced production from the Kalgoorlie smelter and lesser global demand led the refinery to switch to a campaign-style mode from 1989 to 1991. Once full production was resumed the refinery exceeded 30 thousand tonnes (66 million pounds) of refined nickel per annum for
6700-602: The global headquarters of the combined group were located in Melbourne , Australia. The headquarters of BHP Billiton plc were located in London, England. Its main office locations were in Australia, the U.S., Canada, the UK, Chile, Malaysia, and Singapore. The company's shares traded on the following exchanges: BHP Billiton Limited and BHP Billiton plc were renamed BHP Group Limited and BHP Group plc, respectively, on 19 November 2018. In 1998, BHP hired American Paul Anderson to restructure
6800-511: The global investment community. On 22 February 2011, BHP Billiton announced that it had paid $ 4.75 billion in cash to Chesapeake Energy for its Fayetteville shale assets, which include 487,000 acres (1,970 km ) of mineral rights leases and 420 miles (680 km) of pipeline located in north central Arkansas . The wells on the mineral leases are currently producing about 415 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. BHP Billiton planned to spend $ 800 million to $ 1 billion
6900-479: The ground state configuration as [Ar] 3d 4s . The isotopes of nickel range in atomic weight from 48 u ( Ni ) to 82 u ( Ni ). Natural nickel is composed of five stable isotopes , Ni , Ni , Ni , Ni and Ni , of which Ni is the most abundant (68.077% natural abundance ). Nickel-62 has the highest binding energy per nucleon of any nuclide : 8.7946 MeV/nucleon. Its binding energy
7000-611: The half-year ending December 31. BHP made an offer to acquire Anglo American for £31 billion in April 2024; however, the offer was rejected by the Anglo American as "highly unattractive". A revised offer was also rejected in May 2024. In July 2024, BHP and Lundin Mining agreed to jointly acquire 100% of Filo Corp. through a Canadian plan of arrangement. BHP and Lundin Mining also agreed to form
7100-461: The interiors of larger nickel–iron meteorites that were not exposed to oxygen when outside Earth's atmosphere. Meteoric nickel is found in combination with iron , a reflection of the origin of those elements as major end products of supernova nucleosynthesis . An iron–nickel mixture is thought to compose Earth's outer and inner cores . Use of nickel (as natural meteoric nickel–iron alloy) has been traced as far back as 3500 BCE. Nickel
7200-613: The large deposits in the Sudbury Basin in Canada in 1883, in Norilsk -Talnakh in Russia in 1920, and in the Merensky Reef in South Africa in 1924 made large-scale nickel production possible. Aside from the aforementioned Bactrian coins, nickel was not a component of coins until the mid-19th century. 99.9% nickel five-cent coins were struck in Canada (the world's largest nickel producer at
7300-772: The long half-life of Fe , its persistence in materials in the Solar System may generate observable variations in the isotopic composition of Ni . Therefore, the abundance of Ni in extraterrestrial material may give insight into the origin of the Solar System and its early history. At least 26 nickel radioisotopes have been characterized; the most stable are Ni with half-life 76,000 years, Ni (100 years), and Ni (6 days). All other radioisotopes have half-lives less than 60 hours and most these have half-lives less than 30 seconds. This element also has one meta state . Radioactive nickel-56
7400-416: The metals at a profit. The United States Mint , anticipating this practice, implemented new interim rules on December 14, 2006, subject to public comment for 30 days, which criminalized the melting and export of cents and nickels. Violators can be punished with a fine of up to $ 10,000 and/or a maximum of five years in prison. As of September 19, 2013, the melt value of a US nickel (copper and nickel included)
7500-446: The meteorite from Campo del Cielo (Argentina), which had been obtained in 1783 by Miguel Rubín de Celis, discovering the presence in them of nickel (about 10%) along with iron. The most common oxidation state of nickel is +2, but compounds of Ni , Ni , and Ni are well known, and the exotic oxidation states Ni and Ni have been characterized. Nickel tetracarbonyl (Ni(CO) 4 ), discovered by Ludwig Mond ,
7600-454: The mines and smelters but BHP committed to offer all employees affected a redeployment or redundancy. In the early days of the refinery, the suburb of Kwinana Beach was still partially residential and the operations received frequent complaints about air pollution from the refinery, which eventually ceased when the state government of Western Australia removed all residences and the suburb became purely industrial. The refinery also established
7700-541: The mining division of Billiton excluding the downstream metal division. Billiton was divested from Gencor in 1997, and was amalgamated with Gold Fields in 1998. In 1997, Billiton plc became a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index and in 2001 Billiton plc merged with the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) to form BHP Billiton. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP), also known by
7800-523: The move would be contrary to the country's national interest and would breach government orders mandating a listing on the Australian Securities Exchange. BHP Billiton dismissed the plan saying the costs and risks of Elliott's proposal outweighed any potential benefits. In May 2017, with much of the former Billiton assets having been disposed of, BHP Billiton began to rebrand itself as BHP, at first in Australia and then globally. It replaced
7900-505: The only source for nickel was the rare Kupfernickel. Beginning in 1824, nickel was obtained as a byproduct of cobalt blue production. The first large-scale smelting of nickel began in Norway in 1848 from nickel-rich pyrrhotite . The introduction of nickel in steel production in 1889 increased the demand for nickel; the nickel deposits of New Caledonia , discovered in 1865, provided most of the world's supply between 1875 and 1915. The discovery of
8000-409: The ore from Kambalda to Kwinana. At this point, the Kalgoorlie smelter was also already in planning but no decision on its construction and location, Kambalda or Kalgoorlie, had been made. Initial annual capacity of the facility was 15 thousand tonnes (33 million pounds) of nickel powder, produced from nickel concentrate. The official opening of the refinery took place on 15 September 1970 and
8100-488: The original syndicate of seven, which had previously included George Urquhart and G.A.M. Lind), Bowes Kelly, W. R. Wilson, and William Jamieson (who had bought shares from several of the founders). John Darling, Jr. became a director of the company in 1892 and was chairman of directors from 1907 to 1914. Strongly encouraged by the New South Wales Minister for Public Works, Arthur Hill Griffith , in 1915,
8200-407: The principal mineral mixtures are nickeliferous limonite , (Fe,Ni)O(OH), and garnierite (a mixture of various hydrous nickel and nickel-rich silicates). Nickel sulfides commonly exist as solid solutions with iron in minerals such as pentlandite and pyrrhotite with the formula Fe 9-x Ni x S 8 and Fe 7-x Ni x S 6 , respectively. Other common Ni-containing minerals are millerite and
8300-496: The refinement, by BHP metallurgists A. D. Carmichael and Leslie Bradford , of the froth flotation technique for separating zinc sulphides from the accompanying gangue and subsequent conversion (Carmichael–Bradford process) to oxides of the metal, allowed BHP to economically extract valuable metals from the heaps of tailings up to 40 feet (12 m) high at the mine site. In 1942, the Imperial Japanese Navy targeted
8400-489: The refinery commenced in 1967, and the refinery was commissioned in May 1970. During the construction, the project was scheduled to employ 1,500 people while, during operation, it would employ 250 people. The construction cost was financed through a shares issue by WMC Resources. As part of the operational requirements of the refinery, the mining and milling facilities at Kambalda as well as the township had to be expanded. The company also had to acquire rolling stock to transport
8500-424: The refinery, J. W. Bell and S. J. Haywood. Bell collapsed in a hazardous environment in a convertor vessel due to what is presumed to have been a faulty seal on his face mask. Haywood attempted to assist him and both died of asphyxiation , inhaling nitrogen gas . Nickel Nickel is a chemical element ; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with
8600-477: The reversible reduction of protons to H 2 . Nickel(II) forms compounds with all common anions, including sulfide , sulfate , carbonate, hydroxide, carboxylates, and halides. Nickel(II) sulfate is produced in large amounts by dissolving nickel metal or oxides in sulfuric acid , forming both a hexa- and heptahydrate useful for electroplating nickel. Common salts of nickel, such as chloride, nitrate, and sulfate, dissolve in water to give green solutions of
8700-557: The sale of its Fayetteville Onshore US gas assets to a wholly owned subsidiary of Merit Energy Company. In August 2021, BHP announced plans to exit the oil and gas industry by merging its hydrocarbon business with Woodside Energy , Australia's largest independent gas producer. It also announced its intention to delist from the London Stock Exchange and consolidate on the Australian Securities Exchange . This occurred in January 2022. In April 2023, BHP took over Oz Minerals in
8800-548: The sector. In February 2017, BHP Billiton announced a $ 2.2 billion investment in the new BP platform in the Gulf of Mexico . During the same year, as part of their plan to increase productivity at the Escondida mine in Chile, which is the world's biggest copper mine, BHP Billiton attempted to get workers to accept a 4-year pay freeze, a 66% reduction in the end-of-conflict bonus offering, and increased shift flexibility. This resulted in
8900-471: The slogan "The Big Australian" with "Think Big", with an advertising campaign rolling out in mid May 2017. Work on the change began in late 2015 according to BHP's chief external affairs officer. In August 2017, BHP announced that it would sell off its US shale oil and gas business. In July 2018, the company agreed to sell its shale assets to BP for $ 10.5 billion. BHP indicated its intention to return funds to investors. On 29 September 2018, BHP completed
9000-416: The subsequent 5-cent pieces. This alloy proportion is not ferromagnetic . The US nickel coin contains 0.04 ounces (1.1 g) of nickel, which at the April 2007 price was worth 6.5 cents, along with 3.75 grams of copper worth about 3 cents, with a total metal value of more than 9 cents. Since the face value of a nickel is 5 cents, this made it an attractive target for melting by people wanting to sell
9100-399: The terrestrial age of meteorites and to determine abundances of extraterrestrial dust in ice and sediment . Nickel-78, with a half-life of 110 milliseconds, is believed an important isotope in supernova nucleosynthesis of elements heavier than iron. Ni, discovered in 1999, is the most proton-rich heavy element isotope known. With 28 protons and 20 neutrons , Ni is " doubly magic ", as
9200-618: The time of the WMC acquisition by BHP, the refinery employed 454 people. In 2021–22, BHP signed an agreement with renewable energy provider TransAlta to build a solar farm and a battery storage system in the Northern Goldfields, designed to power the Kalgoorlie smelter, the Kwinana refinery and the Kambalda concentrator, the later having been in care and maintenance since 2018 but being recommissioned in May 2022. Due to an oversupply of nickel and
9300-552: The time) during non-war years from 1922 to 1981; the metal content made these coins magnetic. During the war years 1942–1945, most or all nickel was removed from Canadian and US coins to save it for making armor. Canada used 99.9% nickel from 1968 in its higher-value coins until 2000. Coins of nearly pure nickel were first used in 1881 in Switzerland. Birmingham forged nickel coins in c. 1833 for trading in Malaysia. In
9400-466: The world demand for potash . In August 2010, BHP Billiton made a hostile takeover bid worth US$ 40 billion for PotashCorp . The bid came after BHP's first bid, made on 17 August, was rejected as being undervalued. This acquisition marked a major strategic move by BHP outside hard commodities and commenced the diversification of its business away from resources with high exposure to carbon price risk, like coal, petroleum and iron ore. The takeover bid
9500-462: Was first isolated and classified as an element in 1751 by Axel Fredrik Cronstedt , who initially mistook the ore for a copper mineral , in the cobalt mines of Los, Hälsingland, Sweden . The element's name comes from a mischievous sprite of German miner mythology, Nickel (similar to Old Nick ). Nickel minerals can be green, like copper ores, and were known as kupfernickel – Nickel's copper – because they produced no copper. Although most nickel in
9600-537: Was opposed by the Government of Saskatchewan under Premier Brad Wall . On 3 November, Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement announced the preliminary rejection of the deal under the Investment Canada Act , giving BHP Billiton 30 days to refine their deal before a final decision was made; BHP withdrew its offer on 14 November 2010. Canada's decision to block the deal was generally viewed as surprising by
9700-429: Was patented by Ludwig Mond and has been in industrial use since before the beginning of the 20th century. In this process, nickel is treated with carbon monoxide in the presence of a sulfur catalyst at around 40–80 °C to form nickel carbonyl . In a similar reaction with iron, iron pentacarbonyl can form, though this reaction is slow. If necessary, the nickel may be separated by distillation. Dicobalt octacarbonyl
9800-574: Was performed by the then- Premier of Western Australia , David Brand . As part of the opening, WMC endowed the Murdoch University with a chair for environmental studies. Construction of the new facility cost A$ 40 million and the first shipment of nickel left the site on 29 May 1970. With the opening of the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter in 1972, production at the refinery increased as the former's 70 percent nickel matte gradually supplanted
9900-433: Was rejected by the board of Rio Tinto for "significantly undervaluing" the company. It was unknown at the time whether BHP Billiton would attempt to purchase Rio Tinto through some form of hostile takeover . A formal hostile bid of 3.4 BHP Billiton shares for each Rio Tinto share was announced on 6 February 2008; The bid was withdrawn 25 November 2008 due to global recession . On 14 May 2008, BHP Billiton shares rose to
10000-612: Was the world’s largest mining company by market capitalization and the world’s third-largest by revenue . The company specializes in mining and selling iron ore , copper and coal . BHP Billiton was formed in 2001 through the merger of the Australian Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) and the Anglo–Dutch Billiton plc trading on both the Australian and London Stock Exchanges as
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