What could it be?

I found this lump of metal with my detector in a gold producing area.
It’s not gold - wrong colour and not heavy enough. Does have plenty of weight to it though.
Doesn’t look to be man made & I found another smaller one with similar morphology.
It has some green tinge in parts of it, which made me think perhaps copper?
Anyone out there found something similar or have any idea

what it is ?

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Possibly melted copper. I have seen similar melted copper in the past, say something from a house fire or another fire which produced severe heat enough to melt the copper andget it running to forn shapes like yours.

Has that melted look and therefore will not be native copper

Interesting.

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Thanks Lammerlaw
That does make sense because there was a layer of charcoal in the ground nearby - enough to set the detector off. Have a good Xmas

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looks to me like somebody was casting bronze, brass, pewter or some other casting alloy and after they had filled the mould, they had a little left over. So, before it solidified in the crucible, they poured it out on the sand or perhaps on the slagheap?

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Cant help you to identify, but I reckon if you scrub and clean it up proper…mount it on a plinth…it looks to be a very nice sculpture as a talking piece to be on your coffee table. Very artistic!!!:grinning:

Give it a scratch with a nail or something similar or use a file on it to see if copper or lead show.

JW :cowboy_hat_face:

Good idea - I chopped a smaller piece of the stuff with my pick, and cleaned it up. It shows a brassy yellow colour underneath the dark patina

is it magnetic? where was the location found? will it file?

From your initial pics it looks like a molten spill or slag. The above pic certainly has that golden gold look. Weather it is gold, brass or bronze none of those I dont think would be magnetic. If you can file it see if any of the dusty bits from the file are magnetic. You could try the streak test. Look it up on google. The other way to know for sure is an acid test. This should only be done with the utmost care & all safety procedures followed. Again look it up on google. Acid test for gold. The acid will eat & dissolve everything else but not gold. There will be your answer. Good luck.

JW :cowboy_hat_face:

Spilled copper from a failed Cadweld. Seen it many times before at work, This is a video of a modern Cadweld but the process has been around for ever for all sorts of conductors. When the mould gets worn or the conductors move a but the liquid copper runs out onto the ground and looks just like what you have there. Generally the Solution is to seal up gaps in a worn out mold temporaryly with a special kind of putty till a new mold can be obtained.