Ataxites are composed mainly of meteoric iron, a native metal found in meteorites that consists of the mineral taenite with minor amounts of plessite, troilite, and microscopic lamellae of kamacite.

[1] The high nickel content is the reason that they do not develop a Widmanstätten structure, because in this case kamacite can be exsolved from taenite only at such a low temperature (below about 600°C) where diffusion is already too slow.

Only a couple of ataxites have been classified into the IAB complex and the IIF, IVA, IIAB, IIIAB groups.

A Tibetan Buddhist statue, the Iron Man, was likely carved from an ataxite meteorite.

[4][5] Other examples of ataxites are the Dronino meteorite and pieces of the Gebel Kamil.