Native Iron

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Although very rare in terrestrial igneous rocks, Native Iron forms the majority of the earth's core. This piece is a sawn and polished slice from the old, but historically important deposit in Greenland. It is richly speckled with bright metallic Native Iron in a basalt matrix, especially in one of the bands at one end of the rock. Obvious, rich flecks of the material are found on the front, fairly well polished face and on the backside that is not as well polished. It's quite rich and good size (84 grams) for a specimen of this very rare material from Greenland since this small deposit was mined out long ago. Most Native Iron is extra-terrestrial and found in meteorites. This specimen probably dates to the late 1800s and is found now only in museums and in old collections that inherited specimens from previous generations of caretakers. A great explanation of how special these are encompassing all 3 significatn (and old) localities, we found online with a Russian specimen actually, from Carnegie Museum: https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Native_iron_in_basalt_%28Siberian_Traps_Flood_Basalt,_Permian-Triassic_boundary_times,_251_Ma;_Putoran_Plateau,_Siberia,_Russia%29_2_%2817338266745%29.jpg