Magnetite specimens from Iron Mountain, Utah, USA

Magnetite specimens from Iron Mountain, Pinto Iron Mining District, Iron Springs Mining District, Iron County, Utah, USA

These small pieces of Magnetite are also known as 'lodestone', being naturally occurring pieces of magnetic iron ore.

They are amongst the strongest naturally occurring permanent magnets on earth - although really, they are still very weak, only attracting iron filings etc. The 'spikes' seen in the images are iron filings, these specimens are quite smooth overall.