VOISEY’S BAY NICKEL ORE
Here’s a nice nickel ore sample from a
significant nickel deposit in Canada - the Voisey’s Bay Ni-Cu-Co Magmatic
Sulfide Deposit in Labrador. Economic mineralization at Voisey’s Bay
is moderately complex, but in general consists of massive sulfide bodies
surrounded by & sulfides disseminated in mafic intrusive igneous rocks
(troctolites & gabbros). The key economic mineral in this deposit is pentlandite
- a nickel iron sulfide. Other minerals are chalcopyrite,
pyrrhotite,
troilite, cubanite, and magnetite.
Unit & Age: Voisey’s Bay Ni-Cu-Co Magmatic Sulfide
Deposit, Nain Plutonic Suite, mid-Mesoproterozoic, 1.333 billion years.
Locality:
Voisey’s Bay Mine, between Voisey’s Bay & Anaktalak Bay,
southwest of Nain, eastern coastal Labrador, eastern Canada (~56° 19’
50” North, ~62° 05’ 58” West).
Nickel ore (~5.5 cm across) - gabbro with intercumulate metallic sulfides
(principally pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, pentlandite) from the Voisey’s Bay
Ni-Cu-Co Magmatic Sulfide Deposit (mid-Mesoproterozoic, 1.333 b.y.) at
Voisey’s Bay Mine, Labrador, Canada.