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Nickeline
Nickeline or niccolite is the mineral form of nickel arsenide. The naturally occurring mineral contains roughly 43.9% nickel and 56.1% arsenic by mass, but composition of the mineral may vary slightly.
Small quantities of sulfur, iron and cobalt are usually present, and sometimes the arsenic is largely replaced by antimony. This last forms an isomorphous series with breithauptite (nickel antimonide).
Medieval miners looking for copper in the German Ore Mountains would sometimes find a red mineral, superficially resembling copper ore. Upon attempting extraction, no copper was produced, and subsequently, the miners would be afflicted with mysterious illness. They blamed a mischievous sprite of German mythology, Nickel (similar to Old Nick) for besetting the copper (German: Kupfer). This German equivalent of "copper-nickel" was used as early as 1694 (other old German synonyms are Rotnickelkies and Arsennickel).
In 1751, Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt was attempting to extract copper from kupfernickel mineral, and obtained instead a white metal which he named "nickel", after the sprite. In modern German, Kupfernickel and Kupfer-Nickel designates the alloy Cupronickel.
The names subsequently given to the ore, nickeline from F. S. Beudant, 1832, and niccolite, from J. D. Dana, 1868, refer to the presence of nickel; in Latin, niccolum.
In 1971, the International Mineralogical Association recommended use of the name nickeline rather than niccolite.
Nickeline is formed by hydrothermal modification of ultramafic rocks and associated ore deposits, and may be formed by replacement of nickel-copper bearing sulfides (replacing pentlandite, and in association with copper arsenic sulfides), or via metasomatism of sulfide-free ultramafic rocks, where metasomatic fluids introduce sulfur, carbonate, and arsenic. This typically results in mineral assemblages including millerite, heazelwoodite and metamorphic pentlandite-pyrite via sulfidation and associated arsenopyrite-nickeline-breithauptite.
Associated minerals include: arsenopyrite, barite, silver, cobaltite, pyrrhotite, pentlandite, chalcopyrite, breithauptite and maucherite. Nickeline alters to annabergite (a coating of green nickel arsenate) on exposure to moist air.
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Nickeline
Nickeline or niccolite is the mineral form of nickel arsenide. The naturally occurring mineral contains roughly 43.9% nickel and 56.1% arsenic by mass, but composition of the mineral may vary slightly.
Small quantities of sulfur, iron and cobalt are usually present, and sometimes the arsenic is largely replaced by antimony. This last forms an isomorphous series with breithauptite (nickel antimonide).
Medieval miners looking for copper in the German Ore Mountains would sometimes find a red mineral, superficially resembling copper ore. Upon attempting extraction, no copper was produced, and subsequently, the miners would be afflicted with mysterious illness. They blamed a mischievous sprite of German mythology, Nickel (similar to Old Nick) for besetting the copper (German: Kupfer). This German equivalent of "copper-nickel" was used as early as 1694 (other old German synonyms are Rotnickelkies and Arsennickel).
In 1751, Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt was attempting to extract copper from kupfernickel mineral, and obtained instead a white metal which he named "nickel", after the sprite. In modern German, Kupfernickel and Kupfer-Nickel designates the alloy Cupronickel.
The names subsequently given to the ore, nickeline from F. S. Beudant, 1832, and niccolite, from J. D. Dana, 1868, refer to the presence of nickel; in Latin, niccolum.
In 1971, the International Mineralogical Association recommended use of the name nickeline rather than niccolite.
Nickeline is formed by hydrothermal modification of ultramafic rocks and associated ore deposits, and may be formed by replacement of nickel-copper bearing sulfides (replacing pentlandite, and in association with copper arsenic sulfides), or via metasomatism of sulfide-free ultramafic rocks, where metasomatic fluids introduce sulfur, carbonate, and arsenic. This typically results in mineral assemblages including millerite, heazelwoodite and metamorphic pentlandite-pyrite via sulfidation and associated arsenopyrite-nickeline-breithauptite.
Associated minerals include: arsenopyrite, barite, silver, cobaltite, pyrrhotite, pentlandite, chalcopyrite, breithauptite and maucherite. Nickeline alters to annabergite (a coating of green nickel arsenate) on exposure to moist air.