Formula: NiAs

Species: Sulfosalts

Colour: Pale copper red

Lustre: Metallic

Hardness: 5 – 5½

Specific Gravity: 7.784

Crystal System: Hexagonal

Member of: Nickeline Group, the most common member of the nickeline group. An important nickel ore mineral.

Name: Originally named kupfernickel in 1694 by Urban Hjärne from the German nickname for Satan or Nick (in the sense of a mischievous deceiver), because the ore seemed to contain copper but yielded none. Renamed nickeline in 1832 by François Sulpice Beudant in allusion to its nickel contents. Also renamed niccolite by James Dwight Dana in 1868 from the Latin “niccolum”.