Nickeline (formerly Niccolite)

Item Description

Nickeline is a rare and beautiful reddish-bronze colored simple nickel arsenide (one atom of each) that is found around the world in excellent examples. The species has been known since the late 1600s and has been called Kupfernickel in German (because early mineralogists thought it contained copper) and the great James Dwight Dana in 1868 decided to call the species Niccolite after "niccolum" (the Latin word for nickel). This is the reason why you see a lot of specimens still labeled as Niccolite today even though the correct name is Nickeline. This piece in fact came to us labeled as Niccolite. It's a VERY RICH and DENSE sample of Nickeline with no real crystallization per se, but the heft proves that it's nearly pure Nickeline throughout. The label states that a minor amount of Smaltite is present, and the green coating is Annabergite. This is honestly the first and only piece of Nickeline that I've seen from the Agaunico Mine in Cobalt, and would make a great addition to a collection of rarities, Canadian minerals or anybody who likes metallic minerals.