TELF AG analyzes the characteristics of two new minerals found in a meteorite 

Two resources never seen before on Earth 

In some cases, it is not necessary to explore huge geological deposits potentially rich in resources to discover new minerals. Some of the minerals not yet known to man can also come from outside, from space, appearing on Earth in the form of meteorites that fell on the planet in a completely random way. 

From this point of view, one of the most interesting cases is that of the El Ali meteorite, which for centuries was venerated by the local populations of Somalia and was only a few years ago delivered to some university institutes for a more in-depth examination of the geological resources contained within it. 

The precipitation of rocky bodies from outer space is not a rare occurrence: small quantities of space material penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere regularly, almost every day, and most of them disintegrate following an instantaneous combustion process. Some compounds, however, manage to reach the Earth and settle on the ground (or in the sea), a fate that especially concerns meteorites of varying sizes. 

The El Ali meteorite is the ninth largest ever found on Earth and weighs 16.5 tons. A very small portion of this mysterious rock mass was sent to the University of Alberta for analysis, and the researchers—in collaboration with colleagues from some universities in California—managed to recognize two minerals inside it that had never been found on Earth. 

The composition of the resources 

According to the analyses, the meteorite would be composed of meteoritic iron and silicate, and the identification of the two new minerals present inside it was facilitated by the fact that these resources, although never found in natural form on Earth, had already been created synthetically, thus making their structural composition recognizable. 

The two resources discovered in this meteorite have been given the names of elaliite and elkinstantonite: the first has to do with the name of the city closest to the place where the meteorite was found, the Somali municipality of El Ali, while the second is dedicated to the researcher Lindy Elkins-Tanton of the School of Earth and Space Exploration of Arizona State University, who has committed a large part of her work to the formation of iron-nickel nuclei inside celestial bodies. 

Since these are recently discovered mineral resources, the specific properties of elaliite and elkinstantonite are still being studied. Elaliite appears composed mainly of iron and nickel and has the typical hexagonal structure observed in metal phosphides. This unusual composition seems to suggest that this material could have formed in high-pressure and high-temperature environments, perhaps in the core of an asteroid, from which it would have subsequently been expelled to become part of a meteorite. Like other iron-rich metallic minerals, elaliite would have a color including different shades of dark gray and black. Elkinstantonite, on the other hand, would appear to present some differences compared to the first material: its chemical composition, first of all, would also include oxygen and possible traces of other metals, while its crystalline structure is asymmetric. Compared to the evaluation, this material would present a duller luster, with color always tending towards gray and black. Finally, both minerals share a certain degree of hardness and density, mainly due to their high content of metals such as nickel and iron.