Chemistry:Melonite

Melonite
Melonite after calaverite, on quartz. Cresson mine, Cripple Creek, Colorado. Size: 1.3 × 0.9 × 0.4 cm.
General
Category	Sulfide minerals
Formula (repeating unit)	NiTe2
Strunz classification	2.EA.20
Dana classification	02.12.14.01
Crystal system	Trigonal
Crystal class	Hexagonal scalenohedral (3m) H-M symbol: (3 2/m)
Space group	P3m1
Unit cell	a = 3.84 Å, c = 5.26 Å; Z = 1
Identification
Formula mass	313.89 g/mol
Color	White, reddish white
Crystal habit	Crystalline, foliated, granular
Cleavage	{0001} Perfect
Fracture	Brittle
Mohs scale hardness	1–1.5
|re|er}}	Metallic
Streak	Dark gray
Diaphaneity	Opaque
Specific gravity	7.72
Density	7.3
Ultraviolet fluorescence	None
References

Melonite is a telluride of nickel; it is a metallic mineral. Its chemical formula is NiTe₂. It is opaque and white to reddish-white in color, oxidizing in air to a brown tarnish.

It was first described from the Melones and Stanislaus mine in Calaveras County, California in 1866, by Frederick Augustus Genth.

Melonite occurs as trigonal crystals, which cleave in a (0001) direction. It has a specific gravity of 7.72 and a hardness of 1–1.5 (very soft).

See also

• List of minerals
• Tenifer and Melonite finish

References

• D. M. Chizhikov and V. P. Shchastlivyi, 1966, Tellurium and Tellurides, Nauka Publishing, Moscow

External links

Melonite and Calaverite, Kambalda, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia. Melonite is a rare nickel telluride. This is a showy, solid foliated mass of lustrous, slightly iridescent melonite with a bit of brassy, golden pyrite on one side from this major nickel producing area.

Melonite crystal structure (Wyckoff 1963), crystallographic standard alignment