On the discovery, mode of occurrence, and distribution of the nickel-iron alloy awaruite, on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand
- Author
- Ulrich, G.H.F.
- Year
- 1890
- Journal / Source
- Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society
- Volume
- 46
- Pages
- 619-632
- Summary
- In October 1885 Mr. W. Skey, Government Analyst, read a paper before the New Zealand Philosophical Society, Wellington, announcing the discovery of a Nickel-Iron Alloy, which he recognized as a new mineral species and named “Awaruite.” The discovery was made in a collection of minerals sent to the Government Laboratory by Mr. Macfarlane, the Warden of the Jackson's Bay District, which includes Big Bay (Maori name, “Awarua”), Barn Bay, and other Bays in that part of the West Coast of the South Island. Mr. Skey found the new mineral as small grains or scales in a sample of heavy black sand, reported as saved by alluvial miners in Barn Bay; and he gave in his paper, besides descriptions of the physical character of the alloy and its mineral associates, interesting particulars concerning its behaviour towards a solution of cuprous sulphate acidulated with hydrochloric acid, and its quantitative chemical composition as :―Ni=67·63, Co=0·70, Fe=31·02, S=0·22, Si02=0·43; Formula =2Ni+Fe; Sp. Gr.=8·l ; Hardness about 5. He considered the alloy as the second of its kind, of terrestrial origin, so far discovered, under the impression that the known Nickel-Iron “Oktibbehite” (Ni+Fe), which is a meteorite found in Oktibbeha City, North America, was the first alloy of this kind of terrestrial origin ; and he also suggested that the mineral would be found in some basic rock in the vicinity of Barn Bay. Mr. Skey's paper appeared in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute for 1885, and was reprinted with some additions