. 
158 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. VIII. 
contributed the world’s supply of the metal, though supplemented, in a 
small degree, by the Gap Mine in Pennsylvania, and by a few isolated mines 
in Norway and Hungary. Professor Coleman!” states that the Sudbury 
ores consist of a mixture of pyrrhotite (magnetic pyrites) and copper 
pyrites, and in this resemble the gold ores of Rossland. In order to obtain 
the metal the ore is smelted into a matte, containing from twelve to twenty 
per cent. of nickel and about the same amount of copper, is ‘‘ Bessemerized”’ 
into a regulus containing about forty per cent. of nickel and is shipped 
to Clydach in Wales, where its nickel content is extracted and refined by 
the process invented by Dr. Ludwig Mond, F.R.S., and which bears his 
name. ‘The chemical principle on which this process is based is the form- 
ation, at temperatures of about 50° C., of a volatile colourless gaseous com- 
pound of nickel and carbon monoxide of composition Ni4CO, which, 
on being subjected to a temperature of 180° C., decomposes, leaving metal- 
lic nickel and liberating the carbon monoxide. The product thus obtained 
contains between 99.4 and 99.8 per cent. of nickel. The Mond Nickel 
Company is the only company refining nickel within the British Empire, 
and it is interesting to note that at the recent St. Louis Exhibition Dr. 
Mond was awarded the gold medal for his process, the company receiving 
a similar honour struck in silver.!3 Nickel from Canadian ores is now being 
used in the manufacture of armour plate in constructing ships for His 
Majesty’s navy. 
What is known as the Orford or alkaline sulphide process of refining 
nickel is the one by which the Canadian Copper Company’s mattes are 
treated at Constable Hook, N.J., by the Orford Copper Company. As this 
company (now forming part of the International Nickel Company) is the 
chief producer, the bulk of the nickel ores of Ontario are refined by the 
Orford process. An electrolytic refinery erected by the Canadian Copper 
Company at Cleveland, Ohio, was operated for a short time only, but shut 
down in 1902.!4 
The Orford Copper Company is also producing palladiwm. This 
metal belongs to the platinum group, and is found associated with it. 
The Sudbury ores are said to contain from one tenth of an ounce to one 
ounce per ton, and Dr. Joseph Wharton, in an article recently published 
14 bis, prophesies a future production of palladium from these deposits. 
Palladium is an interesting metal, not only from the chemist’s point of 
view, but also from an industrial one, as its physical properties, hardness, 
etce., and the difficulty with which it is attacked and tarnished at atmos- 
(12) 8th Report of Bureau of Mines, Ontario, page 106. 
(13) A full account of the Mond Nickel Process will be found in the 8th Report, Bureau of Mines, 
Ontario. 
(14) Letter from Mr. T. W. Gibson, Director of the Bureau of Mines, Ont. 
(14 bis.) ‘‘Hardware and Metal,”’ Dec. 3rd, 1904. 
