Tags: Chemical Substance, Mineral.
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).
