Garnierite

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Garnierite

Garnierite is the name for a green nickel ore which is found in pockets and fissures of weathered ultramafic rocks (serpentinite

Serpentinite

Serpentinite is a Rock composed of one or more serpentine minerals. Minerals in this group are formed by serpentinization, a hydration and metamorphic rock transformation of ultramafic rock from the Earth's Mantle ....
, dunite

Dunite

Dunite is an igneous rock, plutonic rock , of ultramafic composition, with coarse-grained or phaneritic texture. The mineral assemblage is greater than 90% olivine, with minor amounts of other minerals such as pyroxene, chromite and pyrope....
, peridotite

Peridotite

A peridotite is a dense, coarse-grained igneous rock, consisting mostly of the minerals olivine and pyroxene. Peridotite is ultramafic and ultrabasic, as the rock contains less than 45% silica....
). The name was given by Jules Garnier who first discovered it 1864 in New Caledonia

New Caledonia

New Caledonia , is a "sui generis collectivity" of France located in the subregion of Melanesia in the Oceania. It comprises a main island , the Loyalty Islands, and several smaller islands....
. It forms by lateritic weathering of ultramafic rocks and occurs in many nickel laterite

Laterite

Laterite is a surface formation in hot and wet tropical areas which is enriched in iron and aluminium and develops by intensive and long lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock....
deposits in the world.

Garnierite consists of the magnesium-rich phyllosilicates serpentine

Serpentine

The serpentine group describes a group of common rock-forming hydroxy magnesium iron Silicate minerals#Phyllosilicates minerals; they may contain minor amounts of other elements including chromium, manganese, cobalt and nickel....
, talc

Talc

Talc is a mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate with the chemical formula Hydrogen2Magnesium34 or Magnesium3Silicon4Oxygen102....
, chlorite

Chlorite

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Encyclopedia

Garnierite is the name for a green nickel ore which is found in pockets and fissures of weathered ultramafic rocks (serpentinite

Serpentinite

Dunite

Peridotite

New Caledonia

Laterite

Serpentine

Talc

Talc is a mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate with the chemical formula Hydrogen2Magnesium34 or Magnesium3Silicon4Oxygen102....
, chlorite

Chlorite

The chlorite ion is ClO2-. A chlorite is a compound that contains this group,with chlorine in oxidation state +3....
and smectite in which a high percentage of magnesium is substituted by nickel. These minerals occur in garnierite ores as well individually as in intimate mixtures. They contain mostly 20-40% nickel. Specific names were given to some of these nickel-rich varieties.

The lateritization of ultramafic rocks gives rise to a strong dissolution and removal of magnesium and silicium which leads to a strong residual concentration of iron and nickel in a goethite

Goethite

Goethite, named after the Germany polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, is an iron bearing oxide mineral found in soil and other low-temperature environments....
-rich surface layer (nickel limonite ore). A portion of the nickel is leached downwards and finally fixed in the underlying decomposed ultramafic rock. This process gives rise on the one hand to a moderate nickel increase of the total decomposed rock (formation of nickel silicate ore); on the other hand relatively small amounts of nickel-rich garnierite ore are precipitated in hollow spaces. Today, nickel silicate ores with high garnierite amounts are depleted; the economic relevance of garnierite is therefore relatively small.

Garnierite

See also