96 • Marine Minerals: Exploring Our New Ocean Frontier 



Table 3-6.— Forecast for U.S. and World Manganese Demand in 2000 



^000 Annual growth 



Actual Low Probable High 1983-2000 



(thousand tons) (percent) 



United States 665^ 660 920 1,260 1.9 



Rest of world 8,132 8^200 10,200 13,900 1-3 



Total world — 8,900 11,100 15,200 1-4 



^U.S. data for 1986 from T. Jones, "Manganese," Mineral Commodity Summaries— 1987 (Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1987), p. 98. 

 SOURCE: Adapted from T. Jones, "Manganese," in Mineral Facts and Problems— 1985 Edition (Washington. DC: U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1986), p. 495. 



alloyed with other metals. Approximately 39 per- 

 cent of the primary nickel consumed in the United 

 States in 1986 went into stainless and alloy steels; 

 31 percent was used in nonferrous alloys; and 22 

 percent was used for electroplating. The remain- 

 ing 8 percent was used in chemicals, batteries, dyes 

 and pigments, and insecticides. 



Stainless steels may contain between 1.25 per- 

 cent and 37 percent nickel, although the average 

 is about 6 percent. Alloy steels, such as those used 

 for high-strength components in heavy equipment 

 and aircraft operations, contain about 2 percent 

 nickel, although the average is less than 1 percent, 

 while superalloys used for very high-temperature 

 and high-stress applications like jet engines and in- 

 dustrial turbines may contain nearly 60 percent 

 nickel. Nickel also is used in a wide range of other 

 alloys (e.g., nickel-copper, copper-nickel, nickel- 

 silver, nickel-molybdenum, and bronze). 



National Importance 



Most uses for nickel are considered critical for 

 national defense and are generally important to the 

 U.S. industrial economy overall. However, based 

 on criteria that consider supply vulnerability and 

 possible substitute materials, OTA determined in 

 a 1985 assessment that nickel, while economically 

 important, is not a major "strategic" material.'^* 

 Nickel is stockpiled in the National Defense Stock- 

 pile. The stockpile goal is 200,000 tons of contained 

 nickel, and the inventory in 1986 was 37,200 tons— 

 about 20 percent of the goal. 



The United States imported about 78 percent of 

 the nickel consumed in 1986.*^ Canada was the ma- 

 jor supplier of nickel (40 percent) to the United 



States; Australia provided 14 percent, Norway 11 

 percent, Botswana 10 percent, and 25 percent was 

 obtained from other countries, including the Repub- 

 lic of South Africa, New Caledonia, Dominican 

 Republic, Colombia, and Finland. In 1986, the 

 United States consumed 184,000 tons of nickel, 

 compared to 283,000 tons in 1974. 



Domestic Resources and Reserves 



Domestically produced nickel will probably con- 

 tinue to be a very small part of U.S. total supply 

 in the future. U.S. demonstrated resources are esti- 

 mated to be about 9 million tons of nickel in place, 

 from which 5.3 million tons may be recoverable.*^ 

 Identified nickel resources are about 9.9 million 

 tons, which could yield 6 million tons of metal. The 

 domestic reserve base is estimated to be 2.8 mil- 

 lion tons of contained nickel.*'' Although U.S. re- 

 sources are substantial, the average grade of do- 

 mestic nickel resources is about 0.21 percent 

 (ranging from 0.16 percent to 0.91 percent), com- 

 pared to the average world grade of nearly 0.98 per- 

 cent. Ferromanganese crusts on Pacific Ocean sea- 

 mounts are reported to be about 0.49 percent 

 nickel.*^ 



Domestic Production 



Nickel production from U.S. mines was 1,100 

 tons in 1986, with about 900 tons of nickel recov- 

 ered as a nickel sulfate byproduct of two primary 



''Office of Technology Assessment, Strategic Materials: Technol- 

 ogies to Reduce U.S. Import Vulnerability, p. 52. 



"P. Chamberlain, "Nickel," Mineral Commodity Summaries — 

 1987 (Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1987), p. 108. 



"•D. Buckingham and J. Lemons, Jr., Nickel Availability- 

 Domestic, IC 8988 (Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1984), 

 p. 25. 



"Chamberlain, "Nickel," Mineral Commodity Summaries — 1987, 

 p. 109, 



"W. Harvey and P. Ammann, "Metallurgical Processing Com- 

 ponent for the Mining Development Scenario for Cobalt-Rich Fer- 

 romanganese 0.xide Crust," Final Draft Chapter. Manganese Crust 

 EIS Project (Arlington, MA: Arlington Technical Services, 1985), 

 pp. 3-2. 



