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I don't know the answer to this, but would tend to agree with Peter that the nickel-bearing minerals were probably closely associated with the copper ores. It may be of relevance that many of the alteration products of nickel sulphides (e.g. pentlandite, (Fe,Ni)9S8) and nickel arsenide (nickeline, NiAs) are green in colour and might be confused with copper minerals. The Andes and the coastal lowlands are well known for producing metallurgical oddities. The hammered native platinum artefacts described by Dave Scott are perhaps the best known example, but don't forget the bismuth bronze from Macchu Piccu (R.B. Gordon and J.W. Rutledge, Science 223:585-586, 1984) which had 18% Bi, 9% Sn. I suspect that many more suprises will turn up when more systematic study of archaeological collections is done. ---------------------- David Killick Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0030. Phones: office (520)621-8685; laboratory 621-7986; fax 621-2088 [log in to unmask] %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%