Tafrawet, IIIAB

I’ve been told that Tafrawet (NWA 860) was a stunning 32 kilogram iron.  The 3 kilogram end-cut pictured below certainly suggests as much.  Thick fusion crust, flow-lines, etc.

No photos of the main mass seem to exist.  If anyone has any, please let me know.  It was at the Tucson gem and mineral show in 2000 or 2001.

2426679709_cd5239e073_o 2426681717_21b3613883_oSeveral months after this iron was found, Adam and Greg Hupé sliced up a much smaller iron meteorite and sold it as Tafrawet.  I noticed that the new iron had different inclusions and looked older / more weathered.  Long story short, we gave a slice of it to UCLA and it was found to be a new IAB-sHL, which was eventually approved as NWA 3200.  ~Twenty years on, there are still a few slices of this other small iron in circulation as NWA 860 / Tafrawet, so be careful.