Ullmannite or Nickel glance (trivial name) is a nickel antimony sulfide mineral with formula: NiSbS. Considerable substitution occurs with cobalt and iron in the nickel site along with bismuth and arsenic in the antimony site. A solid solution series exists with the high cobalt willyamite.
Physical properties
Ullmannite is steel-gray to tin white in color with a metallic luster, has a Mohs hardness of 5 to 5.5 and a specific gravity of 6.65. Initially thought to be of two species, tetrahedral and cubic, it was later confirmed that both samples conformed to the 23 point group of the isometric crystal class and typically exhibits cubic, octahedral, or pyritohedral forms although euhedral crystals are rare.
Variance in its chemical composition has been shown to be responsible for loss of symmetry and variations in striation patterns.
Ullmannite crystals are usually less than 2 mm, however larger have been identified in especially antimony rich environments. Ullmannite commonly displays interpenetration twins as well as enantiomorphic twinning along [110].
Origin of name
Ullmannite was named for German chemist and mineralogist, Johann Christoph Ullmann (1771–1821), one of the fathers of systematic mineralogy. Ullmann established a mineral collection (now the basis for the internationally renowned Museum of Mineralogy in Marburg) and authored Ein Systematisch-Tabellarische Übersicht der Mineralogisch einfachen Fossilien, one of the first attempts to provide a structured organization to the observed minerals of the day.
See also
- List of minerals
- List of minerals named after people
References
- Palache, C., H. Berman, and C. Frondel (1944) Dana’s system of mineralogy, (7th edition), v. I, 301–302.