[meteorite-list] Gold and Iridium content of meteorites (especially irons)

[Shawn Alan]

Mike G and Listers,

I would say we struck gold in those meteorites :)..... My understanding is I thought Melrose (a) had the highest gold content, but again there are always discoveries being made everyday. 

I am not sure who asked this but I was looking at a Melrose (a) slice and on the edge of the slice looking through a 60x loupe I saw a spec that looked gold to me. I rechecked it and kept looking and I have to say with other lights I used it looked like a gold spec to me, real gold. 

Now back to the NWA 6932.... I think a few people said that there is about 48g in the total know weight of NWA 6932 because Mike said the gold content was listed at 1.49mg/g? Now Mike that would be true if it was 1.49mg/g but thats not the case. What its suppose to say is 1.49 μg/g Au and ug/g is a unit of mass equal to one millionth (1/1000000) of a gram (1 × 10−6), or 1/1000 of a milligram.

So if I did my math right, the new answer would be............ .000048g per 32kg? 

On the other hand, Melrose (a) is .30oz per ton not sure who is higher, but here is an article on Melrose (a) about the gold content and its weight in gold.

http://www.minsocam.org/ammin/AM19/AM19_370.pdf
 
Lastly, not sure if someone already caught the weight typo but I checked it on the Meteoritical Bulletin Database for NWA 6932 and the gold weight is 1.49 μg/g Au not 1.49mg/g. Why I say this is I havent read all the comments about this post so I bet someone cought it already and I am just repeating what has been said or not. Any whos, take a look at the Melrose (a) write up and keep on rokkin.
 
Shawn Alan 
IMCA 1633 
eBaystore 
http://shop.ebay.com/photophlow/m.html 



[meteorite-list] Gold and Iridium content of meteorites (especially irons)Michael Gilmer meteoritemike at gmail.com 
Mon Oct 3 20:33:34 EDT 2011 


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Hi List, 

In perusing through the latest additions to the Met Bulletin today, I 
was reading the compositional data for NWA 6932 (iron, ungrouped). I 
noticed that the gold (Au) content was listed at 1.49mg/g. Is this 
sort of data as straight-forward as it appears, or is there more to it 
that this layman is missing? In other words, how much gold is in this 
meteorite? The TKW of this meteorite is 32kg. So, with 1000g in a 
kilo, and 1000mg in a gram, how much gold is in this celestial hunk of 
iron? (my math is horrible) 

Second question, what is highest known gold content in a meteorite and 
what meteorite is it? 

Third question, some meteorites also have high iridium content. What 
is the highest known iridium content in a meteorite? 

I am not suggesting in any way that meteorites should be refined or 
melted down to extract their precious metals content, but given the 
high value of metals such as gold and iridium, has any profiteer tried 
such an endeavour? Or would the process be too complex and expensive? 

Best regards, 

MikeG 

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