Nickel is a silver-white, malleable, and ductile metal element. It is represented by the atomic symbol Ni. Its atomic weight is 58.71 and its atomic number is 28. It is a moderately ferromagnetic material that can conduct heat and electricity. Nickel is often found as a component of meteorites.

A very large deposit of nickel is located at Sudbury, Ontario, where most of the world's nickel is mined. Nickel is often found in ores that also contain copper, platinum, gold, and zinc. Commercially, it is produced from the ores pentlandite and pyrrhotite. When nickel is found in mineral deposits, it resembles copper.

For centuries miners did not know how to refine and use the metal. English miners, for example, referred to it as "Old Nick's copper" implying that "Old Nick"--or the devil--had played a trick on them by substituting an ore that produced nothing but slag when it is...