Detailed information
Dimensions
22 x 35 x 27
mm
Weight
8 g
Locality
Népoui Mine Poya North Commune New Caledonia, France
Condition
No recorded repairs
Népouite is one of the main ores of nickel at the Népoui mine in New Caledonia, a French island east of Australia. Named in 1907, this unusual species forms in lateritic tropically weathered deposits, but almost never forms distinct crystals. Rather, it appears as massive, waxy-looking pale nickel-green aggregates, sometimes with rusty gossanous iron-oxides in association. Despite being an ore, specimens are not seen very often. This miniature-sized sample comes from the comprehensive systematic collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021) and is clearly an older specimen and comes from the Type Locality.