Short answers, pulled from the story.
Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt first isolated nickel in 1751 at a cobalt mine in the village of Los, Hälsingland, Sweden. He was attempting to extract copper from the ore known as Kupfernickel and instead produced a white metal he named after the mischievous spirit of German miner mythology.
Nickel is named after a mischievous sprite from German miner mythology called Nickel, similar to Old Nick. Medieval German miners who found a yellow mineral that looked like copper ore but yielded no copper blamed this spirit and called the ore Kupfernickel, meaning Nickel's copper.
About 68% of global nickel production goes into stainless steel. A further 10% is used in nonferrous alloys, 9% in electroplating, 7% in alloy steels, 3% in foundries, and 4% in other applications including rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles.
Concerns about sanctions on Russian nickel exports triggered a short squeeze that caused the price of nickel to quadruple in just two days, reaching $100,000 per tonne. The London Metal Exchange cancelled contracts worth $3.9 billion and suspended nickel trading for over a week.
Nickel is the top confirmed contact allergen worldwide, largely because of its widespread use in jewelry for pierced ears. The American Contact Dermatitis Society voted it Allergen of the Year in 2008, and the American Academy of Dermatology estimated in 2015 that nickel sensitization contributes to a contact dermatitis burden affecting nearly 72.29 million people at a cost of approximately $1.918 billion annually.
The Mond process, patented by Ludwig Mond and in industrial use since before the 20th century, reacts nickel with carbon monoxide at around 40-80 degrees Celsius to form nickel carbonyl gas. Heating the gas causes it to decompose and deposit pure nickel, achieving a purity of over 99.99%. The released carbon monoxide is recirculated and reused.