[meteorite-list] South African news

From: Susan Starke <sastarke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:13 2004
Message-ID: <NEBBIBHFJPGGIHOGNIKNAEIECCAA.sastarke_at_telkomsa.net>

In an article, Meteorite may be worth a cool R170 million ($1=Rand 8) - but
space rock can't be sold, Michelle Pughe-Parry writes for the our local
(Cape Town) newspaper, the Argus:

Is a piece of space debris or a precious rock worth an astonishing R170
million? *The 85kg meteorite displayed in a dark corner of the Port
Elizabeth Museum is worth R170m. Meteorite fragments are said to fetch huge
prices in international sales- R2000 a gram - although to buy or sell
meteorites here is said to be illegal.
Now the family who donated the meteorite to the museum many years ago are
wondering at the wisdom of giving away this 'cosmic gold'.
Relatives of Neville Hollings Ogilvie, of Hofmeyr in the Eastern Cape, who
gave it to the museum 87 years ago, were surprised to hear of the
international market value of the rock.
His niece Jean Wainwritht, 75, of Port Elizabeth told the tale of how the
valuable rock found its way to the museum.
'Little did we know that the fireside story about the ball of fire that fell
out of the sky one hot February night in 1914 would be of such great
interest so many years later,' she said.
'My husband's uncle, Neville Ogilvie, and two farm labourers, Boy and
Kaister, who were traditional Bushmen from the North west Cape, witnessed
the striking event of the 85kg meteorite bursting through the clouds and
landing on his farm Karree Kloof near Hofmeyr in the heart of the Eastern
Karoo.'
She said as the family legend went, Ogilvie and his workers went to inspect
the meteorite the next morning and found all the surrounding karoo bush
severely scorched.
She said Ogilvie contacted the curator of the museum.
'The curator came to Hofmeyr to authenticate the meteorite and collect the
stone, which was transported back to Port Elizabeth. It has been in the
museum all these years, and a part of our family history we are proud of.'
she said.
Wainwritht and her daughter, Thelma Collins, said they were shocked to read
in a newspaper recently that a 4g fragment of South African meteorite had
been sold overseas for R8000 ($1000). Collins said it was amazing to read
how valuable the meteorite was, especially since 'as long as I can remember
I have been told the story about the rock falling out of the sky and landing
on my great Uncle Neville's farm'.
She said she had often taken her own children to the museum to show them the
meteorite and tell the fascinating tale of where it came from, and how it
was linked to family history.
The meteorite is 90% iron, 7% nickel and the rest trace elements.
Now that the museum is aware of the potential value of the meteorite, staff
intend to improve security around it. But the sale of the meteorite or
fragments of it appears to be illegal.
South African Heritage Resources Association (Sahra) archaeologist Mary
Leslie of Cape Town, said: ' In terms of the Heritage Resources Act, no one
may collect, own, or trade in any form of geological or archaeological
object so therefore the 85kg meteorite has no actual monetary value because
it cannot be sold.'
She said different meteorites had different values and to say that this one
was worth R170m was an estimation.
She conceded, however, that there was a gap for meteorites to find their way
out of the country and onto international markets where fragments were
traded freely and lucratively.
'We are tightening up our security at customs points, and a Sahra official
will soon be appointed to make sure that people are not taking the
fragments, or their registered collections, out of the country,' she said.
*There is a photo of the lady standing with the meteorite.
Received on Sat 23 Jun 2001 11:00:46 AM PDT