Strange rock find

[DORN]

i found this very heavy metal rock the other day while detecting. I posted it elsewhere on this site but still need more help. I broke a tiny edge off of it and saw that its very glittery silver. I washed it and cleaned it a bit and it didnt rust. It is non magnetic and i put the tiny piece back under the metal detector... Which is a garret AT Pro. It registers in the nickel pulltab gold range 53-61. I contacted a geologist at a local university and he believes its slag of some sort. So.... Non magnetic, doesnt rust, very heavy, doesnt mark tile.Any other tests i can do.. Or ideas where i can get it tested to see what it is? Will a buy gold for less place be able to tell? Any help is greatly appreciated. Btw i live in west PA.

 

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[creskol]

WoW .. What an interesting rock! Looks like a petrified pine cone.

 

[dig kzoo]

You can try a place that buys gold and silver.

 

[g-olden years]

If a buy-gold-for-less store says it's gold and offers to buy it, sell it instead to one of the refiners listed in this t-net site beacause they pay close to melt value. Unless of course you want to keep it! HH Andi

 

[Gunrunner61]

You can do a specific gravity test on,
here's the table.

 

[tamrock]

The small piece you broke off looks too me like Galena, an ore of Lead. The other possibility? Its a fragment of the paleoproterozoic era Sudbury Basin Meteorite impact, that is now a great source of the nickel in Canada. The meteor impact ejected debris over an area of 620,000 sq. miles and pieces have been found as far away as 500 miles from the impact zone that is located around Sudbury, Ontario. The impact crater contains other metals along with the nickel, you'll find - copper, platinum, palladium and gold. You may try and contact the Earth & Environmental Science Dept. at the University of Pennsylvania about this very interesting specimen. Who knows what the experts will find?
Hey! I made my first reply to this site ... Best Regards, Grant

 

[Tarponhuntr]

Looks a bit too lustery and bright for Galena , and the fact that it wont mark tile makes me scratch my head. I wouldn't think that nickel would break off that easily , but a Geoligist I am not.
I had a find very similar to that recently , and the wonder will keep you up at night.

We thought we had an answer to ours , and now we are beginning to re-think the issue after several other folks have suggested that we "send it off" to be looked at by real rock hounds.

That is an awesome find , and the wonderment makes it even better ! Congratulations!

 

[DORN]

I took that rock to 3 jewelry stores at the mall today. The first one used a probe that can tell if diamonds are real... And the thing went crazy on the shiny parts of the rock. The lady showed me how it doesnt react to any gold or silver band... This rock is getting interesting.

 

[MUD(S.W.A.T)]

Did the geologist actually look at it ? if not I'd take it to him and have him look at it... I agree with him already i can almost tell that's not natural, I'd say a dripping slag of some kind made that...

Keep @ it and HH !!

 

[DORN]

If anyone struggles to find what type of metal they found, please advise them to find a local metal scrap yard that has a gun that can detect different types of metals. This rock ended up being 97% Zinc and 1% lead. I appreciate all those that tried to help. Thank you.

 

[wvdirtdigger]

You may check to see if someone in your area has access to a PMI gun. They can shoot a sample and get ra reading on the metal content. A lot of industrial plants have them. If you know someone that works at one maybe they could test it for you.