I found this in a patch of woods alongside the river and was curious enough to keep it. Except for just a little cleaning with tap water it's pretty much the way I found it. It's not magnetic, is very hard and not malleable like lead and weighs in at 144 grams, or 5.1 oz. Tests negative for platinum. Without taking it to a local university geology department do any of you guys have a guess? The Noble Metals don't have any history around here and I'm thinking it may have been deposited by a glacier. It was at 10" down.
Ed
Slag? Most of the slag I've found was on the beach, but I have found some in the woods.
Joe
99% of slag is magnetic. This doesn't have any of the characteristics of slag either. I'm thinking Rhodium, Palladium, Gallium (Galena) or some such element as the thing is heavy as hell. We do have a lot of Pyrite to the East of us here but this stuff is the wrong color and configuration. I doubt Rhodium but do lean toward Palladium. If it is a pure ore of said element I'm selling it and upping my detector equipment. Cause 5 ozs. of Palladium is worth about $4,000!
I got no idea. Any chance it is meteorite?
(02-13-2015 06:45 PM)Mike Miller Wrote: [ -> ]I got no idea. Any chance it is meteorite?
Well Mike, to test a meteorite that may be magnetic, like a stone meteorite, which has a low content of iron/nickel, you tie a string around the stone, suspend it and bring a magnet close to it. If the stone moves toward the magnet, it's likely a meteorite. With solid iron/nickel meteorites you don't need to go that far as the magnet will literally stick to it. This object failed the string test. So no, it's not a meteorite.
Looks like maybe Galina If I spelled it right we find that here it is a form of lead I am told but not like lead. I think that stuff is pretty
Vibramium?
I don't know, but it's definitely not slag.
Well, I don't want to, but it looks like I'm going to have to take a trip over to one of the local college Geology Depts and see if they can figure it out. Maybe they can make it a class project.
(02-13-2015 07:58 PM)Steveo Wrote: [ -> ]Looks like maybe Galina If I spelled it right we find that here it is a form of lead I am told but not like lead. I think that stuff is pretty
Spelling is close enough. I don't know. Could be but there ain't nothing around here like it. Most of the stuff we pull are iron loaded rocks and there's a big difference. Our area is entirely sedimentary and sandstone/shale. Most of the granite boulders (Some as big as cars.) and such like it were dropped by the glaciers, which makes me suspect it was from that. Most of the gold placer we have in Ohio is in middle Ohio because that was theoretically where the glaciers stopped and most of that gold came from scrapings off the mountains near London, Ontario, where an active gold mine is still in operation. Maybe I should look up what other elements are deposited up there in that area to give me a better clue. DUH!
Cool looking whatever it is!