Slicing and Hand Polishing Nickeline

Most of the rocks from the Cobalt area have a mix of metals, but without getting the ore tested I tend to look for two things.  The outside of a nickeline rock is stained green.  Sometimes before I even find the rock, the dirt around it is a green slime.  After the rock is sliced, nickeline has a copper color to it.  On the other hand, fresh cut silver is bright chrome color and the outside stain is usually black.  The other metal in the area mines is cobalt which oxidises pink on the outside and is more of a dull grey when cut.

I have learned that all of these metals will polish and once that is done, it is more difficult to tell them apart.  It gets stranger to know for sure when the metal is a mix rather than pure.  It is also difficult to know exactly what you have if the rock is uncut, unless the silver is oozing out somewhere or a plate (these are unmistakable).  Rubbing a few spots on the outside of the rock is usually a good idea.   


I can sometimes also use the metal detector to give me a hint.  I have set my PI detector to disregard cobalt.  On the VLF units, once the rock is dug, the numbers on the screen are pretty good indicators- -where cobalt is low and nickel is high, with silver somewhere in the middle.  I still make identification mistakes and sometimes rely on the advise of cryptic on this forum. 

I have a few Youtube videos posted where I share some of the trips, tricks and finds.  My channel is tess99991.  I am by no means an expert and learn something new every time I try something different.  I do this for fun.

Greig