[meteorite-list] South African news

From: Starbits_at_aol.com <Starbits_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:13 2004
Message-ID: <c8.169929b9.28667d32_at_aol.com>

In a message dated 23-Jun-01 8:05:23 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
sastarke_at_telkomsa.net writes:

<< 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).

Interesting since Karee Kloof is a IAB iron. Of course nowhere in the
article is it stated that the $250/gm was for a piece of Karee Kloof, it just
says a 4gm South African meteorite. Karee Kloof by the way is listed in the
catalog as a find not a fall. I think they over estimated the value by about
$21,000,000+.

< 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.' >>

Of course "or trade in any form of geological object" doesn't apply to gold,
diamonds, or other gems or ores where the government gets their cut.

Eric Olson
http://www.star-bits.com
Received on Sat 23 Jun 2001 07:16:02 PM PDT