Ann: Nickel Matte Sales Contract with Glencore, page-21

Maybe tetrataenite will charge over the hill blowing its cavalry bugle:

The list of technologies that rely on magnetic flux is virtually endless, from electrical cars and wind turbines to computer hard drives, speakers and military radars, among many others devices and applications. “They’re absolutely everywhere,”

Using a $2.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Professor Lewis and her team are tasked with “discovering nature’s rules for creation of competitive magnetic materials comprised of non-critical elements.” The team has been engaged in the research for several years now, Lewis says, adding that they’ve arrived at “very promising results.”

Engineers at Northeastern now believe they can solve the puzzle, and have patented a process to accelerate the creation of one such rare earth magnet alternative—a mineral known as tetrataenite, whose magnetic properties make it a leading candidate to replace magnets made of the scarce materials.

To make the cosmic mineral requires manipulating the atomic structures of its iron and nickel components by arranging them into a crystal structure that resembles tetrataenite, speeding up a natural process that would take millions of years on Earth, Lewis says.

“The iron and nickel atoms have to rearrange themselves. And nature will do it, but it will take millions of years to do,” she says. “So if we can do it in industrially relevant time-scales, we will have a nice new addition to the permanent magnet portfolio.”

My note, naturally occuring tetrataenite is 50/50 nickel/iron.