[meteorite-list] Lets' introduce Caillou Noir and about meteorite naming.

From: Michel <Michel_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:17:39 2004
Message-ID: <009901c3baa6$a66c2ab0$8fe73251_at_nomedrlg3eut06>

Dear list,

Some of you may know me. The new members may not. I wish to shortly (re-)
introduce myself.

I live in France and have been travelling and working as an engineer in the
Sahara in the 70's and in the 80's.

I started meteorite hunting in 1997 and succefully found about a hundred of
them. They were sent to European labs and have been analyszed and published
in differents Met Bull. Together with Francoise, my wife , ( she is an
author ) we had many press articles published in European medias and also in
Meteorite Magazine. She wrote abook ( unfortunatly in French) about our
adventures in the Sahara "Chasseurs de Meteorites", Cherche Midi Editor
Paris .

When the NWA rush happened, I started to create my own prospecting network
with nomads, not in Morocco where apparently many meteorite dealers were
having good times.
I spend many expeditions on the field with "my" group. They learned well and
are now good and efficient prospectors. I supplied GPS to them. It allows me
to go back where an interesting find was made. And it works.

In 2001 this team recovered many meteorites and till that date they still
provide me with large amount of meteorites. Having sorted out all
importation and transportation probems, in 2002, I went professionnal in the
way that I registred a business company " Caillou Noir " ( say "kayunwar" )
in France. ( A Caillou Noir is a Black Stone ) It mainly allows me buy and
sell meteorites, but also to pay taxes on my meteorite business ! fair
enougfh ! France is like that we have good social laws regarding health
care .It is a cool country to live. And Sahara is not far ! 2 jet hours for
Algeria, 5 hours to subsaharan countries. A lot of them.

But let's come back to the meteorites I ( with my team) find.

At the beginning, I named them SWA yyxxx ( standing for Some Where in the
Sahara !) xx is a year and xxx my own serial number. I do not wish to
disclose where my team works for evidentv reasons. I have invested some tens
of thousands of euros ( 1 is $ 1.2 today) in raising this prospecting
network.

Now I have decided that I will name the " Caillou Noir meteorites" after
thier local names. That is why you will discover new names on my ebay
listings.

Tioualoualene is a CV3 it was my SWA 02003 # , TKW 741 g
Techouen is a CO3 it was my SWA 02005, TKW 79 g
Ti Hedjirine ( a recristallized eucrite ) was my SWA 02007. TKW 3960 g
Ain Beida is a LL6 with no crust just a light grey stone, look on my site,
it deserves the visit.
More will come soon.

You can find my meteorites on www.caillou-noir.com This site should look
more professionnal soon. But this will not change the nature of the
meteorites I offer for sale !

Thanks for having read this message.

Best regards.

Michel FRANCO
Met Soc member
IMCA # 3869.
Caillou Noir
100 chemin des Campènes
BP n° 16
74400 Les Praz de Chamonix.
www.caillou-noir.com


PS: No snow so far in the Northern French Alps.
PPS: A bolide was heard 3 days ago around here. Nothing serious.
PSS: I will visit my team by the second half of this december.
Received on Thu 04 Dec 2003 03:39:01 PM PST