sign in sign up
<<
Home , Telluric iron

1 FEBRUARY 2020 EDITION No Stone Unturned

silver platinum

WHAT DO

ALL OF

THESE gold Native WELL

KNOWN

METALS They are all “native palladium metals” that is metal ele- HAVE IN ments that have not bonded with other elements.

COMMON? In the next two editions of “No Stone Unturned”, each of these, along with other native elements will be examined. 2

WE WISH TO THANK THE FEDERAL MEMBER CONTACT INFORMATION: FOR LEICHHARDT, HON. WARREN ENTSCH, Phone: 0450 185 250 FOR FACILITATING THE PRINTING OF THIS Email: [email protected] MAGAZINE. Postal Address: PO Box 389, Westcourt. 4870. NQ 129 Mulgrave Road (in the Youth Centre Grounds) CLUB HOURS: MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Monday 4:00pm to 9:30 pm President: Michael Hardcastle Vice-president: Mike Rashleigh Wednesday *8:30am to 12:30 Secretary: Jan Hannam *1:00pm to 4:00pm Treasurer: Joe Venables Saturday *9:00am to 1:00 Assistant Secretary: Allan Rose Assistant Treasurer: Richie Williams *12:00pm to 4:00pm Extra Members MC: Tammi Saal Workroom fees are $4 per session or part OTHER PERSONNEL: thereof and must be paid before session begins. Purchasing Officer: Jan Saal Specimen Curator: David Croft The Club provides tuition in cabbing, faceting, Specimen Testers: David Croft, Vic Lahtinen, silver-smithing and lost wax casting Trevor Hannam GENERAL MEETINGS: Cabochon Advisors: Jodi Sawyer Faceting Instructors: Jim Lidstone, Joe Ferk, General meetings are held on the 1st Saturday of Trevor Hannam each month. When this is a public holiday, the Silver Instructors: Sylvia Rose, Jan Saal meeting is deferred until the following Saturday. Machinery Curators: volunteers needed Note: Your Attendance at General Meetings Gem Testing: Vic Lahtinen, Trevor Hannam ensures that your voice will be heard when it comes Librarian: David Croft to making decisions concerning the running of the Facebook Admin: Tammi Saal, Peggy Walker club. Webpage Admin: Richie Williams, John Heenan QLACCA Delegate: Bill Reece CLUB PURCHASING POLICY: Youth Centre Rep: Bill Reece If you wish to purchase something on behalf of the Field Trip Advisors: Allan Gale, Craig Walker, club, please notify the purchasing officer, Jan Saal John Heenan, Leigh Twine Gem Festival: Trevor Hannam, Michael PLEASE CONSIDER CONTRIBUTING MATERIAL Hardcastle, Allan Gale, for “No Stone Unturned”. Tammi Saal, Mike Rashleigh Auditor: Carey Accountancy Magazine Editor and Publisher: Jeanne Mora Safety Officers positions vacant The Editor reserves the right to choose and edit all material featured in this magazine. Club Banking details for anyone wishing to pay Although all care is taken to ensure the accuracy of membership fees electronically: the material herein, the Editor does not ac- Bendigo bank Acc: 165026436 BSB: 633 000 cept responsibility for any inaccuracies Gem Festival and Membership which may inadvertently occur.

3

AROUND THE CLUB

As usual, we wish all those celebrating a birthday this month a wonderful day and year

A “Get Well Soon” wish to those of you who are not enjoying good health at the moment. It’s not pleasant coping with the extreme temperatures and humidity at the moment.

Your January copy of “No Stone Unturned” had some interesting omissions for which we apologize. It was a “margin” error. You can get an accurate black & white copy on application You know it's a rough neighbourhood when to Jeanne. even the birds have ankle monitors and pack a . Copies of the magazine are always available at the club or on the club website.

SHARING THE SUCCESS

Could those of you who try the different silver work pattern published monthly, please send us a photo to show how you got on. I’m sure other people would be interested in your efforts.

CROSS WORD ANSWERS

How many of you were able to solve Mike’s cross-word puzzle last month. The answers are below.

4 NOTES FROM THE MEETING 2020 CLUB’S 60th BIRTHDAY:

ELECTROFORMING:

Trevor displayed a few interesting items he has been experimenting with.

Another class will be scheduled later in the year .

FUTURE CASTING SESSION BY TREVOR:

A date still to be decided on

SYLVIA’S 1 DAY COURSE: (Bracelet)

Please let us know if you are interested so a date can be finalised. Sylvia is going away in a few weeks and if there are enough people interested she will run this This BIG event will be celebrated during the Annual before leaving. Numbers are limited to six Gem Festival. A commemorative booklet is planned participants .Cost will depend on the cost of the silver. and members are invited to get involved with histor- Applicants will need to have some knowledge of ical events, tall tales of club outings, any humour- working with silver. ous or hair-raising events that took place on field trips (close encounters with our wild life) or on the SUNDAY SLOG : way to and from field trips, your experiences as a Sunday Slog will begin again on every 2nd Sunday budding lapidary, unusual finds you’ve each month from 9am - 1pm. This will be a work only made over the years etc. (the sort of thing that gets session with no purchases available and no instructors people buzzing around the table at morning tea and available. The first SS will be on Sunday 9th February. lunch times.) Photos can be submitted too.

EASTER FOSSICKING TRIP: Either tell Jeanne or write them up for her. Anything As Field Trip Officer Alan Gale will be away Craig that will make good reading IS VERY WELCOME! Walker, Leigh Twine & Bob Lees have kindly offered to organise the Easter outing. Notification via email this publication, our Facebook page and the club notice boards will be posted as soon as a location is decided

SLABS FOR SALE:

Bill Reece advised he has slabs at home for sale. If you are interested, contact Bill for more information.

RENEWAL OF MEMBERSHIP:

Members are reminded that membership renewals are now due. Keep in mind that the membership fee includes insurance and that non-financial members will not be permitted to work in the workrooms. 5

NATIVE ELEMENTS Of the 92 chemical elements found in nature only 19 are known to occur as . These native elements are commonly divided into three groups— 1. metals (platinum, iridium, osmium, iron, zinc, tin, gold, silver, copper, mercury, lead, chromium); 2. semimetals (bismuth, antimony, arsenic, tellurium, selenium); and 3. nonmetals (sulfur, ). It is virtually impossible to make generalizations as to the occurrence of the native elements. They form under greatly contrasting physicochemical conditions and in all types of rocks. Even a single native element can occur in widely diverse environments. Native iron (kamacite), for example, is found primarily in . The iron meteorites called hexahe- drites are almost completely composed of kamacite, and in those called octahedrites it is the princi- pal constituent. Although terrestrial native iron is a great rarity, it has been found in igneous rocks (), in carbonaceous sedimentary rocks, and in petrified wood. A Closer Look at the Metal Native Elements 1. Platinum Although platinum has been in use for thousands of years, it was not recognised as a distinct metal until the 1700s. Discovered by the Spanish in Columbia at the gold mines of Rio Pinto, as early as the 1500s, it was named platina del Pinto meaing “little silver”. They thought it was an impure ore of silver. Platinum is found as flakes or grains and rarely nuggets. Native platinum almost always contains some iron and other metals such as iridium, rhodium and palladium, in mafic* or igneous rocks and in quartz veins associated with hematite, chlorite and pyrolucite. Important sources are Bushveld and Transvaal in South Africa, the Stillwater complex in Montana, Goodnews Bay in Alaska. Ontario in Canada and Norlisk in . With a high melting point, it was not until the 1920s that technology was sufficiently advanced enough to easily work the metal. Although used in jewellery, it is mainly used in industry as aircraft sparkplugs, molecular converters and even for razor blades. It has re- cently been incorporated in chemotherapy drugs. Mafic is an adjective describing a silicate mineral or igneous rock that is rich in magnesium and iron, and is thus a portmanteau of magnesium and ferric. Most mafic minerals are dark in color, and common rock-forming mafic minerals include olivine, pyroxene, amphibole, and biotite. 6

2. Iridium is a native chemical element with the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. A very hard, brittle, silvery- white transition metal of the platinum group, iridium is considered to be the second-densest metal with a density of 22.56 g/cm3 A cubic centimetre of iridium weighs 22.65 times as much as a cubic centimetre of water. It is the most corrosion-resistant metal, even at temperatures as high as 2000 °C. Although only certain molten salts and halogens are corrosive to solid iridium, finely divided iridium dust is much more reactive and can be flammable. Iridium was discovered in 1803 among insoluble impurities in natural platinum. Smithson Tennant, the primary discoverer, named iridium for the Greek goddess Iris, personification of the rainbow, because of the striking and diverse colours of its salts. Iridium is one of the rarest elements in 's crust, with annual production and consumption of only three tonnes. The most important iridium compounds in use are the salts and acids it forms with chlorine, though iridium also forms a number of organometallic compounds used in industrial catalysis, and in research. Iridium metal is employed when high corrosion resistance at high temperatures is needed, as in high-performance spark plugs, crucibles for recrystallization of semiconductors at high temperatures, and electrodes for the produc- tion of chlorine in the chloralkali* process. Iridium radioisotopes are used in some radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Iridium is found in meteorites in much higher abundance than in the Earth's crust. For this reason, the unusually high abundance of iridium in the clay layer at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary gave rise to the Alvarez ** hypothesis that the impact of a massive extraterrestrial object caused the extinction of dinosaurs and many other species 66 million years ago. Similarly, an iridium anomaly in core samples from the Pacific Ocean suggested the Eltanin *** impact of about 2.5 million years ago. It is thought that the total amount of iridium in the planet Earth is much high- er than that observed in crustal rocks, but as with other platinum-group met- als, the high density and tendency of iridium to bond with iron caused most iridium to descend below the crust when the planet was young and still mol- ten. *The chloralkali process (also chlor-alkali and chlor alkali) is an industrial process for the electrolysis of sodium chloride solutions. It is the technology used to produce chlorine and sodium hydroxide

**The Alvarez hypothesis posits that the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and many other living things during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event was caused by the impact of a large asteroid on the Earth.

***The Eltanin impact is thought to be an asteroid impact in the eastern part of the South Pacific Ocean during the Pliocene- Pleistocene boundary around 2.51 ± 0.07 million years ago. The location was at the edge of the Bellingshausen Sea 1,500 km (950 mi) southwest of Chile.

3. Osmium is a bluish-white, shiny metal with a melting point of about 3,000°C (5,400°F) and a boiling point of about 5,500°C (9,900°F). Its density is 22.5 grams per cubic centimetre. These numbers are the 7 highest of any platinum metal. They are also among the highest of all the elements.

4.Native Iron

PROPERTIES of Iron makes up 5% of the Earth’s crust and is 4th in abundance Iron, native iron or telluric iron behind oxygen. It is also relatively plentiful in the sun and other stars.

Native or free iron is rare in the crust, and is usually alloyed with to some degree. Low-nickel iron (up to 7.5% nickel) is

called kamacite and high-nickel (up to 50% nickel) is called tae-

nite. Kamacite takes it’s name from Greek for “bar” , and tae-

nite from the Greek for “ band”. Both crystalize in the cubic sys-

tem.

A third form of iron-nickel, found in meteorites and crystalizing in

Sawed slab of with bright, metallic native iron the tetragonal system is called tetrataenite. All three are general- inclusions from Uivfaq, ly found as disseminated grains or rounded masses. Important (size: 7.8 x 3.5 x 0.6 cm) localities are in Russia and Germany. It is the major component General of most iron meteorites, and is found in most chondritic me- Category Native mineral teorites and occurs as microscopic grains in some lunar rock. Formula Fe (repeating unit) Taenite and tetrataenite are mainly found in meteorites, often Cubic associated or ingrown with kamacite. Crystal class Hexoctahedral (m3m) H-M symbol: (4/m 3 2/m) Bronze age people used iron meteorites to make weapons.

Identification Terrestrial iron Color Steel-gray to iron-black, white in polished section

Crystal habit Massive, as interstitial blebs, rare as crystals Twinning On {111} and on {112} {001}; with parting on {112} Iron Hackly Tenacity Malleable Mohs scale hardness 4 Metallic Diaphaneity Opaque Specific gravity 7.3–7.87

Telluric iron Kamacite 8 9 Pierced Leaf Silhouette Pendant 10 11

In the year 2020, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in

America and said: "Once again, the earth has become wicked and over -populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me. Build another ark and save 2 of every living thing along with a few good humans." He gave Noah the blueprints, saying: "You have 6 months to build the ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights." Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard - but no ark. "Noah!," He roared, "I'm about to start the rain! Where is the ark?" "Forgive me, Lord," begged Noah, "but things have changed. I needed a building permit. I've been arguing with the boat inspector about the need for a sprinkler system. My neighbours claim that I've violated the neighbourhood by-laws by building the ark in my back yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to the local Planning Committee for a decision. Then the local Council and the electric company demand- ed a shed load of money for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the passage for the ark's move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us, but they would hear none of it. Getting the wood was another problem. There's a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the Greater Spotted Barn Owl. I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls - but no go! When I started gathering the animals the RSPCA took me to court. They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued the accommodations were too restrictive and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space. Then the Environmental Protection Agency ruled that I couldn't build the ark until they'd conducted an environmental impact study on your proposed flood. I'm still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I'm supposed to hire for my building crew. The Immigration Dept. is checking the visa status of most of the people who want to work. The trade unions say I can't use my sons. They insist I have to hire only Union workers with ark-building experience and no-one has ever built an ark before! To make matters worse, the Taxation Department seized all my assets, claiming I'm trying to leave the country ille- gally with endangered species. So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10 years for me to finish this ark." Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky. Noah looked up in won- der and asked, “You mean you're not going to destroy the world?" "No," said the Lord. "The Government beat me to it. 12