n8hounder
starting to spend too much on rocks
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Post by n8hounder on Jan 28, 2013 11:35:25 GMT -5
[/img]This feels as heavy as gold ..it's highly magnetic and streaks gray also seems to be as hard or harder than quarts..there are very few very small balls of rust in it ,but no tarnish or weathered look to the rest of it. And a very small amount of white chalky material in some pits .... I looked at hundreds of pics and can't find anything exactly like it... It was found in a rock garden a old friend of mine that she made out of someone else's stone. So it could be from anywhere... I would love to give her some answer but I'm stumped. At first I thought meteorite of some kind but there are no melted areas. Just crystal structure all around. sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/545696_368954523188467_800059176_n.jpgAttachments:
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2013 13:07:32 GMT -5
highly magnetic meaning a magnetic sticks very well, or highly magnetic meaning that steel sticks to it, as though this stone is itself a magnetic?
Surf around for goethite, maybe.
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n8hounder
starting to spend too much on rocks
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Post by n8hounder on Jan 28, 2013 13:19:54 GMT -5
Yeah okay .. it is not it's self magnetized but when a magnet is close it pulls harder than steel would.. thank's I'll check that out .. I thought it was almost close looking and acting like a hematite/magnetite mixed crystal. But it is just a little different than that..
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n8hounder
starting to spend too much on rocks
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Post by n8hounder on Jan 28, 2013 13:26:06 GMT -5
Well I thank you very much for venturing a guess but it is to hard and streaks gray.And will only produce a streak under lots of force. So I don't think it would be goethite....
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metalsmith
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Post by metalsmith on Jan 28, 2013 16:05:46 GMT -5
not the best photo, but I'm thinking that it is galena - lead sulphide - hence its so heavy - but not as heavy as gold unfortunately! If so it is probably reasonably soft and you should be able to get a fresh surface which in all likelihood will appear silver. Though what you are looking at is fresh PbS it is likely that it does have some silver in it. It is also likely to be weakly radioactive. Generally associated mineralisation is calcite / limestone, sometimes fluorite (rarely silver).
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n8hounder
starting to spend too much on rocks
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Post by n8hounder on Jan 28, 2013 18:36:09 GMT -5
Okay that was kind of my first guess... but I thought lead would have a really weak if any reaction to a magnet. I know it has some iron in it but I wouldn't think it has enough to change the properties so that it was seemingly not scratched by a quarts crystal. It didn't make sense that it would be somehow harder as a alloy than lead or iron by themselves. And it is really hard to get it to streak on the inside of the toilet tank lid... I have never seen natural lead crystal but those discrepancies in the nature of the metals as I know them made me think that it is probably something else all together. I thank you for the info and I understand the reasoning behind your answer. It is hard to get my darn camera to focus on it and I am new here... Can the mix of metals possibly account for it's oddly different properties? Honestly I can't say for sure, not personally having experience with this alloy.
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n8hounder
starting to spend too much on rocks
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Post by n8hounder on Jan 28, 2013 19:13:50 GMT -5
I just read through wiki's page on galena ..again.. to see if it would explain why it might not act as would be expected of pure lead. And I remembered that the crystal shape didn't match up also... if it is lead then it must have at least a interesting mix of other metals. I looked it over very hard trying to make sense of the crystals pattern..I cant see any regular pattern to them. Not one obvious box shaped crystal on it.. and really no pattern that repeats enough for me to point to as "the shape " of its crystal... there are two pieces we found. The one I took the picture of almost had a flattened quarts crystal look to part of it....can it mix with quarts?
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Minnesota Daniel
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Post by Minnesota Daniel on Jan 29, 2013 1:54:30 GMT -5
Can you upload a better picture? If it's magnetic, it's iron or magnetite. The rust spots are hematite. It's had to tell from the picture, but could it be iron slag -- from a smelter?
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metalsmith
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Post by metalsmith on Jan 29, 2013 15:37:01 GMT -5
you're right of course, galena would not stick to a magnet
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n8hounder
starting to spend too much on rocks
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Post by n8hounder on Jan 29, 2013 16:32:42 GMT -5
Cool, yeah it being some type of industrial man made product did cross my mind. I was not sure about slag because of how crystalline and free of pockets of impurities it is. But the slag I am used to seeing is associated with welding mostly.... I'll look at the other pics I have I think one of the other piece came out a little better. But the I gave the material back to the owner so I can't try to take more pics right now..also I don't know how to add a pic to this post... I tried but can't figure it out..maybe I'll just make a new post... My thanks to everyone who is trying to help, I have been trying to figure this out for quite some time now....
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n8hounder
starting to spend too much on rocks
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Post by n8hounder on Jan 29, 2013 16:44:50 GMT -5
these are the best pics I have for now..... Attachments:
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n8hounder
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Post by n8hounder on Jan 29, 2013 16:46:04 GMT -5
the smaller piece... Attachments:
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n8hounder
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Post by n8hounder on Jan 29, 2013 16:48:16 GMT -5
I need to read up on how to use my camera I guess.... Attachments:
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2013 12:23:40 GMT -5
I think it is time to start looking at Nickel or Cobalt ores. Iron is not unique, these can also be magnetic.
My quick surfing indicates that Cobalt could be the cuplrit.
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Post by gingerkid on Jan 30, 2013 17:14:21 GMT -5
Could it possibly be magnetite? Magnetite has a hardness of 6 and a dark gray to black streak.
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n8hounder
starting to spend too much on rocks
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Post by n8hounder on Jan 30, 2013 18:17:34 GMT -5
Hmmm I haven't looked at cobalt yet ,I have looked at magnetite very closely and it doesn't seem to fit.. I did see something almost close that was magnetite/hematite crystals.. but the shapes didn't seem to match up.... can't thank everyone enough for trying to help this has been quite a boggle to figure out..
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n8hounder
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since January 2013
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Post by n8hounder on Jan 30, 2013 21:54:53 GMT -5
We have a winner ! I'm so happy to get that figured out.. It's a cobalt mineral..and looks just like the pic of Skutterudite on wiki .. on to my next mystery stone. I love this site, very cool and helpful people
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2013 14:28:41 GMT -5
Yay! Congrats.
Now let's go find a few million tons and earn ourselves some wealth!
If you decide to cut it, be careful. It's an arsenic mineral.
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metalsmith
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Post by metalsmith on Feb 1, 2013 14:01:27 GMT -5
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2013 15:03:12 GMT -5
Following Metalsmith's rather learned lead I did a little google-foo. Pyrite has a grey streak mohs 6-6.5. I think that, perhaps, the way to differentiate would be to burn some. pyrite will stink like sulfur the cobalt wont.
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