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Humans have been using nickel for ages, but we didn’t actually realize it until fairly recently. The metal often comes mixed in ore deposits with copper and iron, adding a silvery shine that ancient blacksmiths liked for their tools, weapons, and armor. It wasn’t until 1750 that metallurgists in Saxony came across some copper ore that was lighter in color than usual. They processed it down into an especially bright, silvery, extremely hard material they hadn’t seen before. Flummoxed, they dubbed it kupfernickel, meaning something like “goblin’s copper” or “copper with the Devil in it.” The following year, a Swedish mineralogist isolated the element and named it nickel. It turned out to be useful for adding luster, reducing weight, and increasing corrosion resistance in tools and weapons. Many countries used it to make shiny, long-lasting coins, including the eponymous US five-cent piece (though that coin is, oddly, made mostly of copper).

Nickel really established its place in the modern world in the 1820s, when scientists figured out that blending it with steel yielded a much stronger, more rust-resistant alloy. Soon, nickel-enhanced steel was being used in guns, ammunition, and vehicles, including to armor warships. Then, in 1913, a British metallurgist came up with a mix of carbon, chromium, nickel, and steel that formed a new, rust-resistant compound that was dubbed “stainless” steel. It turned out to be tremendously handy for everything from kitchen faucets to refrigerators to cutlery. 

Stainless steel consumes the lion’s share of the world’s nickel output, but batteries are gaining fast. That’s not only because manufacturers around the world are producing more and more batteries containing nickel, but also because many of those manufacturers are increasing the amount of nickel used in those batteries. The more nickel a battery contains, the more energy it can store, meaning a car can travel farther on a single charge. The battery in a typical Tesla, for instance, is as much as 80 percent nickel by weight. The battery industry’s consumption of nickel jumped 73 percent in 2021 alone. 

Excerpted from Chp 5 of Power Metals: The Race for the Resources by Vince Beiser.