Pentlandite
Species
Uncommon · (Ni,Fe)₉S₈
The world's principal ore of nickel, almost never found alone: it exsolves as flames and blebs inside pyrrhotite as a magmatic sulfide melt cools. Bronze-yellow, and faintly magnetic through its host.
Identity
- Formula
- (Ni,Fe)₉S₈
- Chemical class
- Sulfide
- Ore of
- Nickel, Cobalt, Platinum, Palladium, Rhodium, Osmium, Iridium
Crystallography
- Crystal system
- Cubic
- Habits
- Granular, Massive
- Fracture
- Conchoidal
Physical properties
- Mohs hardness
- 4
- Density
- 4.8 g/cm³
- Luster
- Metallic
- Colors
- bronze, brown
- Streak
- pale bronze-brown
- Transparency
- Opaque
Geology
- Origins
- Igneous, Hydrothermal
- Host rocks
- Volcanic rock, Ultramafic rock (peridotite, serpentinite)
- Associated minerals
- Pyrrhotite, Chalcopyrite, Magnetite
- Geography
- Canada, Russia, South Africa
Classification
- Rarity
- Uncommon
- Gem quality
- No
Sources
- M. Pasero and others, IMA Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification, The New IMA List of Minerals, updated September 2026. International Mineralogical Association (CNMNC), 2026.
- Pentlandite. Mindat.org (Hudson Institute of Mineralogy).
- J. W. Anthony, R. A. Bideaux, K. W. Bladh, M. C. Nichols, Pentlandite. Mineral Data Publishing, Handbook of Mineralogy, 2001.
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