Nickel Potential of the Caribbean Plate and Adjacent Regions

Abstract

The Central American-Caribbean region hosts a number of identified nickel resources in nickeliferous latentes. These have been mined in Guatemala, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Colombia, and currently provide about 12 percent of the world’s annual nickel production.

All the active nickel projects, and most of the known lateritic deposits and potential resources, are on margins of the Caribbean Plate, where slabs of mantle-derived ultramafics have been emplaced above or within crustal rocks. Tropical weathering of the peridotites has created enriched nickel zones within the lateritic weathering profile. Unexploited nickeliferous laterite resources occur in this setting in a number of areas. Nickel sulfide prospects are sparse in the region.

Within the Antilles, Andes, and Central America, very modest possibilities exist for discovery of additional ultramafics and associated nickeliferous laterites. Review of nickel deposit types worldwide indicates that nickel sulfides could occur in some geological environments within the region, and that sulfide deposits have economic advantages over laterites. In the Guiana Shield a reasonable potential exists for discovery of nickeliferous sulfides in Proterozoic greenstone belts.

Many factors affect the potential for future new sources of nickel, including the region’s proximity to ocean transport and markets, abundant water, and benign climate. Offsetting factors in many countries include scarcity of indigenous fuel, limited infrastructure, and variable foreign investment climates. The most promising potential for new nickel projects in the region is for asyet undiscovered sulfide deposits in the Guiana Shield.