Nickeline
Mineral NiAs
Also called Niccolite, Copper nickel, and Kupfernickel
Take care.
- Contains arsenic: Wash your hands after handling it, don't make dust, and never heat it.
About it
Pale copper-red metallic masses that tarnish dark, often coated with green annabergite. Common in silver-cobalt veins, as at Cobalt, Ontario, and in Saxony, Germany.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Arsenide, nickeline group
- Formula
- NiAs
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 5–5.5
- Specific gravity
- 7.7–7.8
- Streak
- pale brownish black
- Lustre
- metallic
- Crystal system
- Hexagonal
- Colours
- pale copper red, tarnishing grey to black
- Transparency
- opaque
- Cleavage and fracture
- none; conchoidal fracture
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.