Any idea what this stuff is?

[fatelk]

I know it's not lead, or even close, but I thought this might be as good a place as any to see if anyone had any ideas.

It was in with some junk I got from an estate some years ago. I'm trying to clean out the garage and found it, was just curious as to what it was before throwing it out.

[Tom W.]

I've had my hands on that shiny stuff before, but I can't remember what it is just yet...


I think it's iron pyrite.

[docone31]

No, pyrite is a different colour and shape.
The metallic piece looks like a meteorite piece, I have no clue what the shape is.
Looks like a casting for lapidary work.
When I have a small stone to grind, I encase it in plaster, or especially grout. makes it easy to handle, and grinds off quite nicely.
It is for stones too small to dop.
Listen, do not toss it. Give it to a kid.
Might must make a difference to them.
I had a small agate given to me when I was a toddler. I remember it to this day!
It was a Botswana agate, polished. You find them in small clutches of stones to tumble. Someone gave it to me, and I kept it for years. When I learned to cut and polish stones I remembered it.
Still do.
You might be able to do the same thing for some kid.

[Tom W.]

No, pyrite is a different colour and shape.
The metallic piece looks like a meteorite piece, I have no clue what the shape is.
Looks like a casting for lapidary work.
When I have a small stone to grind, I encase it in plaster, or especially grout. makes it easy to handle, and grinds off quite nicely.
It is for stones too small to dop.



Pyrite comes in many colors, but true, it is mostly crystalline... We used to find a lot of it in Bauxite.
Gimme a while, I'll remember where I've handled the metallic looking stuff...Maybe I saw some embedded in gneiss???

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Fatelk, see if the metallic one is is magnetic. Most meteorites are. If it is a meteorite, your fortune is made.

[Skipper]

Looks like foundry slag.

[sagacious]

One of the least sure ways to ID minerals is by appearance alone.

That said, the dark one looks somewhat like molybdenite, but even upon initial appearance, there's at least a half-dozen other common minerals it also looks a lot like.

The light one looks a lot like talc or soapstone. That ID should be easy to confirm/refute with a simple hardness test. Talc feels slippery/soapy, and can be scratched with a fingernail.

If you have a piece of unglazed porcelain, rub the dark mineral on the unglazed surface like chalk on a chalkboard. Reply here with the exact color of the streak, as this can be diagnostic. The underside of a porcelain plate (or unglazed tile) will work, and will not damage the plate. Hope this helps, good luck.

[fatelk]

Wow, you guys are good! I'm thinking that I have some kind of slag and talc.

I rubbed the gray piece against the back of a tile, but it cuts into the tile, leaves a scrape instead of a streak. It does have a melted look on the unbroken edge and a bit bubbly on the underside like it was poured or something. It's not magnetic, and feels too light to be metallic.

The white piece can be scratched with a fingernail. It doesn't seem slippery, but I found a photo online of talc and it looks just like it.

Thanks everyone!

[lwknight]

If its too light to be metalic , try an acid test. It could be something like aloxite but more likely calcium silicate or about a million other things.
Hay , maybe its potassium of some sort. definately not pure because it cannot exis in a humid atmosphere.

[starbits]

They are definitely not meteorites. From the photo the metalic looking one could be a host of different things, silicon, manganese, galena, zirconium etc or some alloy. What is the density of the material. That will eliminate some of these.

See if your local scrap yard has an XRF analyzer that they could zap it with.

Starbits

[sagacious]

Yes, definitely not meteorites. The samples I have of pure managnese show a very crystalline fracture surface. An XRF sure would make light work of ID'ing that sample.

Try a streak test on a harder tile. Porcelain is good because it's very hard. Sometimes the unglazed underside of a mortar (mortar and pestle) works well.

Some more photos of the cleaned dark sample might be helpful.

[square butte]

I believe the one on the left is Galena - spelling may be a bit off - from my geology days in college.

[DukeInFlorida]

Um, galena is LEAD ORE!!

Melt that puppy down and cast something from it!


I believe the one on the left is Galena - spelling may be a bit off - from my geology days in college.

[mold maker]

Galena usually shows a cubic crystal structure. I'll bet the name will end in "ite. Check for a GEM & MINERAL club nearby. Those folks know rocks like we do BOOLITS. It would help if there was any info of their source.

[44fanatic]

One on the left looks like something I had seen in my Geology class at Montana Tech in 1986. So long ago and I spent so much time in a drunken stupor that I dont remember much now.

Sorry, not much help. But I can remember getting 10 cent Kamikaze shots at the bar just down the hill.

[Rangefinder]

Geology class at Montana Tech

Now you're talking about my old neighborhood! I grew up in Butte--well, just north in the Elk Park Valley.

Yes, the shiny one is most definitely Galina. The other one I wouldn't know for sure without a better photo, and would help to check hardness, luster and streak.


That is what Urianum Ore looks like and you could be contaminated.

Um.... No. Uranium ore is usually either a dull gray "ultra-heavy" graphite looking chunk, or a sulpher-looking powder known as yellow cake.

[fatelk]

That is what Urianum Ore looks like and you could be contaminated
Freaked me out a bit, there. I had come to the conclusion that it was just slag of some kind. Slag is basically glass, right?

It's really hard, for one thing. I can't find anything that it will leave a streak on. It will scratch glass real easy. I took some better close-ups. Please tell me this is some ordinary junk and has nothing to do with Uranium!

[montana_charlie]

I thought the Army still had all of the stuff they picked up near Roswell.
Wonder how that piece got loose?

CM

[lwknight]

Uranium is heavier than lead and in its natural state is totally harmless. Ureanium has to be refined and plutonium engriched in a breeder reactor to make a fissionable material out of it.
Natural uranium may show a few counts on a frisker but , so does lantern mantles and orange ceramic paint. Countable decaying atoms do not in themselves indicate radiation in any measurable amount

Smash it with a hammer. Im thinking , obsidian or some silicate glass from a volcano.

[fryboy]

hmmmm lava rock of some sort would be my guess

[sagacious]

Thanks for the additional photos. Not uranium ore.

The surface texture and cleavage makes it look artificial-- man-made. Possibly silicon-rich slag, or skim from a silicon refinery. The fractured edge texture and color looks very similar to massive pure silicon. Silicon will scratch glass. The sample looks supiciously artificial to me, and not a mineral per-se.

Silicon will flake/chip/crumble when you chip a small piece off, and even though it's hard, a small chip will readily crush into dust/sand-sized granules when pressed under a hard surface like the face of a hammer.

[skimmerhead]

that shiny one look's just like the one that broke my windshield !

skimmerhead [smilie=s: :veryconfu

[Rangefinder]

Metallic luster with gray color, no cleavage, with a hardness above 5 to 5.5... NOT galena--that has a hardness range well below glass and tends towards a cubical cleavage (looks like a bunch of little squares stacked up). I'd say hematite (Iron Oxide).

If you happen to have a ceramic tile laying around, preferably a white one, rub the rock across it (the back, not the glazed front). Iron oxides will leave a red streak.

[Tom W.]

O.K. My mind has defogged a bit.

When I worked at the sawmill, we had a powerhouse on site to generate most of out electricity, We burned sawdust, some chips and pine bark. Most of the burnt residue looked like crushed charcoal, and was dragged off to the far reaches of the property. There was a lot of sand and dirt that was melted in the process, and this stuff had to be raked out of the boilers periodically. That's exactly what the metallic looking stuff in the photos looked like. There were also some interesting looking glassine formations that were a milky grey color too.

[jnovotny]

That second set of pics sure looks to be slag of some sort. Many times it has been mistaken for a meteroite.

[fatelk]

Yea, I'm pretty sure its just slag of some kind. The only thing I've found that it will leave a streak on is the glazed side of a piece of tile. It barely leaves a dark gray streak. It cuts glass and it cuts the back of the tile, so it has to be just glass, slag or something.

[sagacious]

Yea, I'm pretty sure its just slag of some kind. The only thing I've found that it will leave a streak on is the glazed side of a piece of tile. It barely leaves a dark gray streak. It cuts glass and it cuts the back of the tile, so it has to be just glass, slag or something.
I agree. Still great 'rocks' to look at.