Cominco Canada on it. weighs 55lbs

Magnesium? Nickel? Someithing ? I don't think its silver...(would be nice if it was )

Not magnetic...

I heard lead, zinc, tadanac, nickel, silver, magnesium...so far...I don't want to test for silver with acid just in case there is some kind of reaction...

Cominco started in 1906 as The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada, formed by the amalgamation of several units controlled by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The company changed its name to Cominco in 1966.

Their smelter in Trail Canada produces lead and zinc and is the largest smelter of its kind in the world.

Just for fun you may want to get an accurate weight on the ingot and then get an accurate water displacement. I do not know if this will let you differentiate between lead or zinc cut it may be worth a shot.

 

 

Magnesium is lighter than aluminum.

Lead is really heavy, and butter soft.

Nickel would be pretty hard.

It could be a sacrificial zinc anode , as it looks to be made so it can be strapped down.

What are the dimensions?

 

I have a similar one. Mine is zinc.

I'm thinking the same as Biggundocter. First thing that came to mind was a zinc annode. The ones I've seen on bridges are similarly sized and shaped. 

1 and 5/8" thick

16.5" length top

17" length bottom

8.25" width bottom

8" width top

55.5lbs

IT KINDA SLOPES LIKE A PYRAMID ON ENDS...so that's why the two measurements...

Tried scratching it will knife and just slid/scratched....very dense.

Any uses for Nickel or Zinc? And anyway to tell which it could be?

 

Glenn and everything thank you so far! Ausfire what do you use yours for? Any uses? I paid $25 just because the guy needed money and I didn't want to pass on something that could be useful...all else fails, I could use it as a weight I guess.

 

6 hours ago, b4utoo said:

 

 

Glenn and everything thank you so far! Ausfire what do you use yours for? Any uses? I paid $25 just because the guy needed money and I didn't want to pass on something that could be useful...all else fails, I could use it as a weight I guess.

 

I don't use mine at all, b4. It just sits on the bench ... can't see any practical use for it, other than a weight.  I picked it up at a dairy farm where a couple of them were lying in the mud on the cowshed floor.

They are tapered because they are cast in ingot molds. The taper allows them to drop out of the mold.

Zinc anodes are used in many applications to control corrosion. Marine applications especially. Soft enough a knife will carve a chip, but with some effort. Think die cast parts like carburetors.

Tin, low melting temp allows it to be used for several applications.  Pricey per pound.

Nickel-which I doubt-but if it is it is worth waaay more than $25. You wouldn't be able to peel a chip with a knife.

Lead,  doesn't sound heavy enough for lead with those dimensions. Sinkers for fishing, bullets, punch block-doesn't dull sharp ends.  A knife will carve easily.

Magnesium-sounds waaaay too heavy for mag. Lightweight castings, and fire starters.

 

A 55lb zinc anode? That would keep one heck of a crab pot in the water for a long time.

I used a knife and used a lot of force and was able to scratch it only

zinc is readily attacked by hydrochloric (muratic) acid. Lead and zinc have significantly differnt densities and lead is probably more valuable from a scrap metal stand point. 

dropped 14k gold testing acid on a piece I chipped off with a hammer and chisel...immediate reaction smoke, bubbling, and the color was golden brown orange then ended almost as fast as it started...but no physical change to chip

If from cominco and in that shape i am going to bet it is a zinc annode for a ship to prevent rusting.

My back of the envelope calculations tell me 55 pounds of zinc would displace roughly 220 cubic inches (about 3 and a half liters, just shy of a gallon) of water. 

Or without doing any fancy math, does your scrapyard have one of those fancy laser guns?  A lot of yards have a gun that vaporizes a bit of the metal and analyzes it to find out what it is. 

The second photo explains it all. The lower right hand corner has the symbol for zinc and the purity. Try selling it to a commercial plating shop! 

The second photo is mine and we know it's zinc. The original picture has no identification marks.

If hydrochloric acid reacts strongly with a small piece, i'd hazard it is zinc. Probably worth a bit as scrap.

That's definitely a zinc ingot. My son works as a fitter/turner in a zinc processing plant, handling thousands of these each day. The big ingots are 1 tonne each.

He says yours would be one 25 kg ingot of a stack weighing 1 tonne. The grooves are to hold the strapping on the 1 tonne pallets. You need to find the other 39 to make much money on it!

On today's metal prices, zinc is about $1600 U.S. per tonne, so your block is worth about $65. Better than what you paid for it. 

Sorry about that ausfire I misread the post. But I still think it is zinc. However if I didn't need it  it would go to a commercial plater!

24 minutes ago, WL smith said:

Sorry about that ausfire I misread the post. But I still think it is zinc. However if I didn't need it  it would go to a commercial plater!

No worries, and yes, it's zinc all right.

A commercial plater would probably pay more for it than the scrap merchant. I'm keeping mine just for interest sake.

My son, who works in a zinc facility, got one of these and machined the top to a smooth finish to be  a perpetual trophy for his company's social cricket matches. It has engraved plates attached annually recording the winning team.