The nickel mineral is garnierite and it typically forms over...

The nickel mineral is garnierite and it typically forms over ultrabasic intrusives along serpentine belts. Refining ore into metal is more complex and less efficient than getting nickel out of sulphide ores. The product is usually an iron/ nickel alloy to be used in stainless steel.

Cobalt is always present and some deposits have the rare earth metal scandium as well. Scandium commands high prices but until now has only had limited uses in speciality aluminium alloys. An emerging market for scandium is in the manufacture of fuel cells so possibly demand will lift over coming years.

Greenvale in Queensland was mined for garnierite for many years and still has interesting potential for both cobalt and scandium.

Port Macquarie has a fantastic resource but much of it is in a nature reserve. I can't see it being mined in the near future. A very small part of this particular deposit can be seen from the Pacific Highway about two kilometres south of the Port Macquarie turnoff. The serpentinised ultrabasics are exposed in a cutting to the west of the highway while the forest cover to the east shows why mining applications have met with local resistance. Laterite is a class of soils and laterite nickel deposits are always accessed by mining the soil. This means massive disturbance of whatever happens to be growing.

Nyngan in western NSW doesn't have the forest cover of Port Macquarie and is another huge laterite nickel deposit with contained cobalt and scandium. I don't know very much about it at all but the ground is held by Jervois Mining NL.

Hope this helps.

Cheers