[meteorite-list] EBAY Slag for sale

[Impactika at aol.com]

Colorado is very rich in slag too.
For nearly a century CF & I operated a large smelter just south of  Pueblo. 
There are still "hills" of slag all around it. And slag was found to be  cheap 
and very practical to build the under-laying layers of roads and rail-road  
tracks, it is solid and does not shatter in winter.
Result: it is everywhere! 
And I am regularly handed some at local mineral shows.
 
Anne M. Black
_www.IMPACTIKA.com_ (http://www.IMPACTIKA.com) 
_IMPACTIKA at aol.com_ (mailto:IMPACTIKA at aol.com) 
President, I.M.C.A.  Inc.
_www.IMCA.cc_ (http://www.IMCA.cc) 

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In a message dated 7/6/2007 8:53:47 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time,  
korotev at wustl.edu writes:
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  haven¹t 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.)
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