Fig. 8.—Nickel production, and nickel content of reserves, in Ontario, New Caledonia, and Norway.
The present known nickel and nickeliferous iron-ore deposits indicate roughly the locations of perhaps all or nearly all of the nickeliferous metallographic provinces of the world. It is in these provinces that new deposits are most likely to be found. The wide-spread distribution of these provinces is indicated by the following statement in the Report of the Ontario Nickel Commission:
While competition is not to be feared (that is, for Ontario), it would be futile to try to shut off the supply of nickel from almost any of the great nations. * * * Nearly every important country has supplies of nickel ore which can be worked if the demand is great, thus ensuring a high price.
It is thought probable that the nickeliferous metallographic province of eastern Canada, which includes the Sudbury district, contains the greatest unknown nickel deposits, just as it contains the greatest known one, and this for three reasons. The first and most obvious reason is that the great nickel-ore bodies of the Sudbury district, the isolated Alexo ore body, 150 miles north of the district, and the appreciable content of nickel in the veins of the Cobalt and other districts near by, indicate an unusually large nickel content in the original magma from which the basic igneous rocks were derived. The second reason is that the mantle of glacial drift effectively conceals large areas of underlying rock and prevents easy discovery. The third is that the wild and unsettled nature of the country inhibits the human activities whereby accidental or other discoveries would be made.
POLITICAL CONTROL
The Sudbury nickel deposits and the Alexo ore body in eastern Ontario are under the political control of the British Empire; the New Caledonian nickel deposits are controlled politically by France, New Caledonia being a French colony; and the nickel deposits of Norway and Cuba are under the political control of those governments. The other deposits of the world, as has been noted, are commercially unimportant.
COMMERCIAL CONTROL
Ownership of mines and undeveloped ore bodies in the Sudbury district is divided between British and American interests. There are two companies producing ore at the present time and a third is expected to begin producing soon.
The first large company in the field was the Canadian Copper Co. This is a subsidiary of the International Nickel Co., over 90 per cent. of the stock of which is held in the United States. The Canadian Copper Co. owns the following mines: Copper Cliff, Evans, Stobie, Crean Hill, Vermilion, Creighton, No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6. Four of these were being worked in 1917—the Crean Hill, Vermilion, Creighton and No. 2. In December, 1916, the president of the Canadian Copper Co. gave the following estimates of reserves of payable ore in three properties of that company: 10,000,000 tons in the Creighton; 2,000,000 tons in Crean Hill; and 45,000,000 tons in No. 3.