Las Cruces        23°22’59.36"S, 70°35’9.77"W

Antofagasta, Chile

Found: 2001

Classification: Iron, IIIAB

History: A mass of 528 g was found by Jim Labenne in a place named Las Cruces, 16 km east of the Antofagasta Airport.

Physical characteristics: The mass has the average dimension of 100 × 50 × 30 mm. The top is covered by pockmarks, with small wide pits with sharp ridges characteristic of irons from the Atacama Desert. On the top one large depression clearly indicates the former location of a large troilite nodule.

Petrography: Small section 30 × 25 mm examined. Medium octahedrite with bandwidth 0.8 mm. Few inclusions. No FeS recognized. Small schreibersites inside kamacite bands near band intersections, two larger (1-3 mm) outside kamacite. Little weathering but no heat altered zone recognized.

Geochemistry: Composition: 5.32 mg/g Co, 91.5 mg/g Ni, 20.6 μg/g Ga, <50 μg/g Ge, 12.5 μg/g As, 0.177 μg/g Ir, and 1.459 μg/g Au. Based on the composition and structure, the iron belongs to group IIIAB. Las Cruces is resolved from Los Reyes (Ir = 0.128 μg/g) in terms of Ir but cannot be compositionally resolved from the observed fall Juromenha.

Classification: Iron IIIAB.