Melonite

Melonite, or nickel telluride, 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.

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

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).

References

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