[meteorite-list] EBAY Slag for sale

From: Randy Korotev <korotev_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:52:56 -0500
Message-ID: <200707061452.l66EqAv03572_at_levee.wustl.edu>

At 14:59 05-07-07 Thursday, STARSANDSCOPES at aol.com wrote:
>I don't know why this slag tests positive for nickel, but it does!


People have been making iron and disposing of the
waste for several hundred years in this area and
much of the US. The most common kinds of local
meteorwrong I encounter are hematite nodules -
iron ore - that weather out of the local
limestone. This stuff has been used as feed
stock for mom-and-pop iron smelting operations in
the Ozarks since the 1800's. As Tom Phillips
said, the processes were not as efficient as
today, so a lot of iron metal was left
behind. People have brought us all kinds of
glassy stuff with metal in it, one of which even had the imprint of a bolt:

http://meteorites.wustl.edu/meteorwrongs/m026.htm


Two months ago a fellow came to my office with
the ugliest 60-lb chunk of iron I've ever
seen. He'd dug it up while "grub hoeing" in
south St. Louis Co. There was no smooth surface,
it was very rusty, and it was full of
cavities. It didn't "look like" an iron
meteorites to me, but I have no experience with
iron meteorites that have been in the ground for
100's to 1000's of years, so I really don't know
what to expect. In a post 2 months ago, Eric
Twelker said "Those of us who are lucky enough to
have hundreds or thousands of meteorites pass
through our hands possess a store of knowledge
that has real value to academics that haven?t had
this experience." I agree, and I wish I had that knowledge!

I neglected to get a photo of the thing. I did a
quick nickel test, though, with one of those
nickel allergy test kits and got a positive
result*. So, I cut a piece off and analyzed it
for the Fe, Ni, Co, Au, and Ir. Strange results:

>Fe 89%
>Ni 600 ppm
>Co 62 ppm
>Ir 1 ppb
>Au 12 ppb

The object cannot be a meteorite because the
concentrations of Ni and Co are 100x too low for
metal in any kind of meteorite. Yet, the
concentrations of Ni, Co, Ir, and Au are all
higher that I would expect for iron smelted from
iron ore. More weird is that the relative
concentrations of those elements (ratios) are not
out of line for an iron meteorite. It's as
though the metal is 1% iron meteorite and 99%
pure iron. I don't know what this thing is.

Similarly, a fellow from Colorado sent this photo
and a small sample a couple of years ago:

http://meteorites.wustl.edu/meteorwrongs/m122.htm

It is also a a man-made piece of iron, but one
with far more Ni and Co than in any iron oxide ore I've ever analyzed.

>Fe 90%
>Ni 2590 ppm
>Co 131 ppm
>Ir <14 ppb
>Au 85 ppb

I don't get it.

Randy Korotev


* Note that the dimethyl glyoxime [DMG] test for
Ni is very sensitive. If it gives a positive
result for 600 ppm Ni, then it is too sensitive
to really be of much use in distinguishing
meteoritic metal from terrestrial metal. A
negative result should be helpful, however, if the test is done correctly.)
Received on Fri 06 Jul 2007 10:52:56 AM PDT