The falling dollar has investors scurrying for cover under exchange traded funds (ETFs) representing gold, silver and…nickel?

There’s no nickel ETF, but there is an exchange traded note (ETN): the iPath Dow Jones AIG Nickel TR Sub-Index (JJN). The fund is up 20.2% year-to-date and 10.3% during the past week. Besides the usual suspects of the weakening U.S. currency and general economy, what else is behind this performance?

A big nickel mine should start production next year in Brazil. Mirabela Nickel Inc. is making solid progress with its Santa Rita project in Brazil, with insiders saying they could double the amount of nickel in reserves, reports Drew Hasselback for the Financial Post.

The cost of the nickel and copper used to make a nickel has gone up so much that producing one of the coins now costs 7 cents, says Zubin Jelveh for Portfolio, wasting $14 million a year. The government usually steps in and rebases a coin to get its actual value back in step, but this probably won’t happen until after the elections.

Tags: Copper, Currency ETFs, ETNs, Material ETFs, Metals & Mining, Silver