Aluminum and Nickel

Abstract

In the last chapter we discussed concentration of Cu in soil profiles by supergene enrichment. Two other elements that are enriched to ore grade by soil processes are aluminum and nickel. Virtually all of the world’s Al and perhaps one third of its Ni comes from such deposits (Lelong and others 1976, p. 147). Aluminum ores overlie a variety of rock types, but Ni is associated exclusively with ultramafics, reflecting the relative abundance of the two elements in the crust. Deep weathering under humid tropical conditions is necessary for the formation of both ore types, and aluminum ores are widely distributed in parts of the world having such climates now, or in the Tertiary, but production of lateritic Ni is largely confined to New Caledonia, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba.

Meanwhile the rain fell with cruel persistence. You felt that the heavens must at last be empty of water, but still it poured down, straight and heavy, with a maddening iteration, on the iron roof.

Rain, Somerset Maugham From Complete Short Stories of Somerset Maugham (© 1921 by Smart Set, Inc.) Reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Co., Inc.