Mystery rock - what is this stuff?

[DirtFlipper]

Howdy,

I ran across what seemed like a decent sounding signal tonight, opened the plug, checked with the probe and still got a nice repeatable somewhat higher tone (I actually thougt I was chasing maybe a Wheat or iffy silver). I couldn't locate the target in the plug after a couple more scoops, and so then started chasing it in the pile. Couldn't spot it at first, and then finally realized there was a small piece of dirt that was sounding off. Or at least I thought it was dirt. Pinched it a bit and found this little piece of rock or mineral. Checked some more and found another small piece of it.

When I got home, I rinsed them off and also found that a magnet picks them up pretty stongly. However they themselves are not magnetic.

I have no clue what these are. They don't seem man-made at all, but they do each have about the same thickness (actually, pretty darn close).

Any help?

HH,
DirtFlipper

 

[Dancin' Dave]

My guess is that you found yourself a piece of magnetite. It could be a meteorite fragment but the surface doesn't look quite right. If you know any rock hounds in your area, you may wish to have them check it out.

DD

 

[DirtFlipper]

My guess is that you found yourself a piece of magnetite. It could be a meteorite fragment but the surface doesn't look quite right. If you know any rock hounds in your area, you may wish to have them check it out.

DD

I was under the impression that magnetite was magnetic? These aren't. They are strongly attracted to a magnet, but don't attract anything themselves.

 

[Shambler]

They look like strangely shaped rocks - throw 'em back.

ok, just kidding - post them on the rock hound forum at t net. If "t net" means nothing to you, PM me.

 

[Dancin' Dave]

You are correct DirtFlipper ... Magnetite is magnetic. Serves me right for trying to answer a post when I'm half asleep.

 

[Bell]

slag.

 

[Jason illinois]

There are a lot of metals that are found in nugget form. They look natural to me. Since they are close in dimension it is possible they are crystals of some metal that had been weathered. Magnetite is magnetic-sometimes, always will be attracted by a magnet, they have predictable crystal forms also, hard to tell once they are weathered. Put it in your mouth for a week, does your hair and teeth fall out? May be Uranium! lmao j/k I hope its platinum nuggets or meteorites for ya bud!

 

[Larry (IL)]

My best guess is Enargite, a copper arsenic sulfide, an important ore of copper. It is metallic but not magnetic found in copper bearing parts of the country. A close second guess would be Manganite, a metallic but non magnetic cubic sample of manganese oxide. It is hard to tell without having it in hand, but a rock club or local college geology dept. could help you.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

You ought to be in coal region country where hotrock is abundant...However looking at them don't look like NE Pa. hotrock for sure...Imagine a gemologist could tell for sure and your local dealer could give you a pretty good idea...

 

[DirtFlipper]

Thanks for the info! Sounds like a good Winter research project...