Rare, Patagonian IIIAB Medium Octahedrite Villa Regina Iron Meteorite

Here is a beautiful new iron from the Rio Negro region of Patagonia. The official name for this new IIIAB octahedrite is 'Villa Regina'. There is very little of this meteorite available for collectors.

The Meteoritical Bulletin:

Villa Regina 39°6’S, 67°4’W
Rio Negro, Argentina
Found: before 2005
Classification: Iron meteorite (IIIAB)
History: Meteorite purchased from a person from Patagonia who stated that it had been found on a farm near Villa Regina by a relative.
Petrography: (J. Wasson, UCLA): Observations based on 37 × 26 mm slab, 4 to 6 mm thick, etched on all cut surfaces. Om; bandwidth 0.8±0.1 mm. Heat altered zone ~2 mm wide on outer surfaces. Small FeS nodules, only 8 mm2 in a total area of about 2100 mm2. No schreibersite was identified. Structure is deformed and fractured. Weathering is minor.
Geochemistry: Co = 5.01 mg/g, Ni = 79.3 mg/g, Ga = 19.3 μg/g, Ge <70 μg/g, As = 4.30 μg/g, Ir = 4.32 μg/g, Au = 0.598 μg/g.
Classification: Iron, IIIAB. The composition of Villa Regina puts it in all IIIAB fields on element-Au diagrams. Its nearest relatives are Mount Wegener and Ssyromolotovo, but it is resolvable from these in terms of Ir and they were found on different continents. It is thus not paired with any other iron.