[Iwonda (OP)]

I was digging what I think are small garnets out a rock when I came across what looked like a metal crystal poking out of the rock so I used a diamond coated rotary file to remove as much of the rock as possible and came across this. What ever it is, it's very hard because it started destroying my diamond coated files.
How much heat and pressure would it take to fuse a mineral like quartz with about 7 different metal elements and what force on earth could have done this??
1.jpg (110.85 kB . 800x600 - viewed 6585 times)
2.jpg (131.95 kB . 800x600 - viewed 6564 times)
3.jpg (147.65 kB . 800x600 - viewed 6567 times)
4.jpg (135.58 kB . 800x600 - viewed 13669 times)
5.jpg (141.68 kB . 800x600 - viewed 6566 times)
image_1.jpg (26.62 kB . 800x618 - viewed 6568 times)
image_2.jpg (48.66 kB . 800x618 - viewed 6572 times)

[chiralSPO]

Nice spectra!

I don't think they indicate that the rock is metallic though... To me it looks like aluminosilicate rock, with iron, titanium, and some calcium. Presumably these are all oxides, silicates or aluminates--the photographs don't appear to show actual metallic deposits--it all looks like compounds to me.

Corundum (aluminum oxide) is particularly hard, and could be responsible for damaging your files (not harder than diamond, but probably harder than whatever matrix the diamond is imbedded in).

@Bass might be able to provide more useful insight!

[Bass]

My first guess would have been magnetite or specular hematite (iron oxide minerals), but your spectral analysis with the  high titanium content suggests ilmenite may be present as well. Is the metallic mineral strongly or weakly magnetic?

Metallic minerals are commonly precipitated in veins. The metals are carried in superheated hot water solutions (hydrothermal) and can precipitate when pressures decrease enough to cause the water to flash to steam, or upon mixing with colder groundwaters.  Most rocks contain Alumino-silicate minerals (AlSiO), so those elements are commonly the most abundant- which I think is reflected in you spectral analysis.

[Iwonda (OP)]

I totally agree that there shouldn't be actual metal in this rock but there is. Most of the stones found where this stone came from are littered with metal. There's been a lot of money and time invested in trying to understand why this is so.
Below are a couple of photos of stones with metal in them and there are many more.
With this stone I was curious as to how much heat and pressure would it take to fuse together quartz and metal.
image_1.jpg (86.78 kB . 800x600 - viewed 6326 times)
image_3.jpg (137.71 kB . 800x600 - viewed 6323 times)
image_4.jpg (138.36 kB . 800x600 - viewed 6321 times)
image_5.jpg (88.14 kB . 800x600 - viewed 6318 times)

[RD]

Apparently the honey-coloured bits are titanium (dioxide) ...


https://www.dakotamatrix.com/products/4012/rutile

[evan_au]

Nice spectra!

What technique did you use to generate the spectra due to different elements?

Unfortunately, the 10 keV on the horizontal axis doesn't give me enough clues...

[alancalverd]

Looks like x-ray fluorescence to me. There's a 5 keV calibration point on the axis.

[Iwonda (OP)]

This was scanned using the edx analysis. We've had a number of other scans done on other stones such as s.e.m., xrf, xrd and raman and to date there has been over 23 different metal elements detected in several stones that were examined.

[chiralSPO]

Just to be sure, these metallic elements are incorporated as compounds, not their in their pure metallic state, yes?

To my knowledge, some metals, like cobalt, copper, silver, gold, and platinum can be found in their metallic state in veins or nuggets, or even sometimes as crystals. More reactive metals, like titanium, iron, and nickel are usually found in compounds, but can be found as native metals. Highly active metals, like aluminum, calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium are essentially almost found as compounds.

EDX analysis is a good way of quantifying concentrations of elements at the surface of materials, but doesn't say much about the chemical environments they are in. XPS can usually be used to distinguish between oxidation states of the each element.

These may be useful:
https://srdata.nist.gov/xps/main_search_menu.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_metal

[Iwonda (OP)]

Just to be sure, these metallic elements are incorporated as compounds, not their in their pure metallic state, yes?

Not all as compounds, there is actual pure metal in some of these stones, I can not say how much is pure metal but a lot of metal can be seen with the naked eye in these stones and gemstones. I have broke apart  a number of stones and picked the metal particle out of the debris. We have two binders full of scan results and all scans were done at a major lab or university and I must add that everyone reacted the same as you, saying that this can't be right. All of the data and research appear to point to one term and that's "impactites" I've max out on file space for this post but if you'd like to see more photos, I will have to do so in another post.
Thanks for the links...all and any info is helpful.

[Bass]

Just to clarify, most metallic minerals are compounds, usually either sulfides (or more broadly, suldfide, sulfate or sulfosalt) or oxides. Native (elemental) metals do occur. but are much more rare- we've all seen pictures of gold nuggets. Most native metals are soft and easily deformed.
As to why quartz and metallic minerals are often found together- most metals go into solution easily in hydrothermal waters, which also commonly contain dissolved silica (quartz)- both of these tend to precipitate under the same PT conditions. Also, as magmas crystallize, they become more silicic (quartz rich) with "left over junk" (i.e. metals) that don't fit well into the lattices of the solidifying crystals. Often these end up together in the last phases of the cooling igneous rocks (good example is porphyry copper deposits).

[Iwonda (OP)]

I totally agree with everything you have written when it comes to typical earth rocks but the rocks I've shown here are not typical at all. If you look good at the photos posted, you can actually see the metal with your eyes and there are many more rocks like these. Based on the research that has been done, these rocks have all been altered, modified, morphed or created during a major meteorite impact event, these are "impactites", and not typical everyday normal earth rocks. 

[Bass]

I beg to differ.

[Bored chemist]

I can not say how much is pure metal but a lot of metal can be seen with the naked eye i

Have you heard of fool's gold?
https://geology.com/gold/fools-gold/

[chiralSPO]

pyrite (fool's gold), galena, mica, hematite, chalcopyrite, and many other minerals can often look metallic, but are actually compounds (oxides and sulfides).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrite
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galena
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mica
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hematite
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcopyrite

you might be able to identify your samples as metallic or nonmetallic based on their conductivities (just a handheld multimeter, set to resistance mode should do.)

[Iwonda (OP)]

Pyrite, no way...as for mica, I did come across a lot of mica but there's no mica in the stones shown in this post and nor was any of the metal targets that were scanned. I did try the conductive test and got no results, I was told by a geologist that the test would not work if it was a mixture of metal and stone. A lot of these stones were found using a metal detector so I was very curious as to why they were setting off the detector. Some of this material appear to be unknown to science, have a number of stones that can not be identified or explained. I have some photos of what appears to be actual metal that found inside some of these stones, if you like, I'll post a few.

[Bored chemist]

A lot of these stones were found using a metal detector so I was very curious as to why they were setting off the detector.

Magnetic materials like iron oxide will trip a metal detector.

Some of this material appear to be unknown to science,

Unknown to you doesn't mean it's unknown to science.

[Iwonda (OP)]

Of course, all of this stuff is totally unknown to me but I never figured it would be unknown to sooooo many scientist too. All I can do is keep asking questions, somewhere out there, somebody knows. I agree with everyone else that there should not be metal in these rocks but there is.
10.jpg (86.75 kB . 800x600 - viewed 3421 times)

[Border]

What technique did you use to generate the spectra due to different elements?

[Iwonda (OP)]

What technique did you use to generate the spectra due to different elements?

The electronic scans were produced at a material analysis lab using edx analysis.