According to R. Balasubramaniam and A. V. Ramesh Kumar (2003), the pillar shows "excellent" atmospheric corrosion resistance.
Ray et al. (1997) analyzed portions of the two smaller fragments. Their analysis revealed the following chemical composition (weight %):
Balasubramaniam (2002) also obtained a small portion of the pillar with ASI's permission, and used an electron probe microanalyzer to analyze its chemical composition. He found that "the composition varied from one location to another":
The typical composition of the slag was 55.8% iron, 27.8% silicon, 16.3% phosphorus, and 0.1% manganese.