Rosell Minerales

This specimen is an awaruite nugget, rounded by the fluvial action. The awaruite, formerly known as "josephinite" by this North American locality, is a natural alloy of iron and nickel, with compositions within the Ni3Fe-Ni2Fe range (Ni3Fe is more common). Many people mistakenly believe that "josephinites" are of meteoritic origin, but in fact the awaruite is extremely rare in metallic meteorites. The placer deposits of this area were discovered and exploited in the middle of the XIXth century. The awaruite of this deposit is usually accompanied by serpentine, andradite and orcelite: Ni5-xAs2 (x = 0.23).

Size: 0.9 x 0.5 x 0.5 cm.

Classic locality

The extremely glassy, transparent to translucent opal colors range from colorless to very rich orange. A really excellent, sculptural and rich bi-colored large matrix opal example from this locality. Bright neon-green fluorescence. Very old material. Matrix opal specimens of this large size are rare from this Oregon locality.

Size: 7.0 x 4.0 x 3.8 cm.
Found in ±1990.

Col. J.M. Manchion (Barcelona). No.523, Kucera 1991.
Fluorescent under long wave UV