noun
- Plural of pentlandite; iron-nickel sulfide minerals that are important ores of nickel.
Usage: technical; mineralogy; geology
Examples
- Pentlandites are commonly found in mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks.
- The ore deposit contains significant quantities of pentlandites mixed with other sulfide minerals.
- Geologists identified pentlandites as the primary nickel-bearing phase in the sample.
- Pentlandites crystallize in the cubic system and often appear as granular aggregates.
- The mining company extracted pentlandites from the Sudbury Basin, a major nickel-producing region.