Rocksday

Pentlandite

The main ore of nickel, a bronze-yellow sulfide usually intergrown with pyrrhotite.

Pentlandite specimen
Photo: John Sobolewski (JSS), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

How to identify pentlandite

  • Light bronze-yellow metallic.
  • Not magnetic.
  • Usually as grains within pyrrhotite.

Often confused with

Where it's found

  • Sudbury, Ontario
  • Norilsk, Russia
  • Kambalda, Western Australia

Uses

Nickel for stainless steel and batteries.

Rock tumbling

Not suitable for tumbling.

Did you know?

Ontario's Sudbury Basin nickel ores sit inside an ancient meteorite impact structure.

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