native terrestrial Iron

Item Description

I had never seen a native iron from this locality. According to MINDAT it is an "Abandoned basalt quarry on a contact to tertiary lignites .and iron is rare in igneous rocks." In fact, native iron is more commonly and easily found in meteorites than on the earth's surface! This is a polished slice of native rock, hosting elemental iron. The consignor passes on the following concerning the native iron from Buhl: I found something unusual concerning the native iron from Buhl reported in A Method for Isolating Native Iron from Basalt without Destroying its Form. MAX SEEBACH (Centv. Min.,1 910,641-643) which says native iron occurs in the basalt of Buhl, near Weimar, in the form of a fine network. The basalt may be removed without destroying the form of the iron by heating with Plattner _s flux in a graphite crucible.A piece of basalt 1 C.C. in size is destroyed in one and a-half hours. The last traces of rock enclosed in the meshes of the iron are removed by fusion with boron trioxide