The growth and evolution of nanometre-sized Ni metal islands deposited under low-temperature non-ultra high vacuum conditions as a function of metal layer thickness, growth temperature and time is reported. The temperature of formation of the islands has been intentionally kept low for possible applications in flat panel display technology and also to act as a catalyst for carbon nanotube growth. It is shown that the size and distribution of the islands depends critically on the annealing temperature and the initial thickness of the metal layer. The mechanism of formation of the islands is described in terms of an Ostwald ripening mechanism of mass transport of either weakly bound individual Ni atoms or smaller clusters into larger more dispersed clusters.