[meteorite-list] The NWA Gold Rush is Over!

From: Adam Hupe <raremeteorites_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Apr 30 14:49:55 2005
Message-ID: <091801c54db1$927f65e0$6401a8c0_at_c1720188a>

Dear List,

I promised to get back to the List on the subject of the recent shortage of
NWA meteorites. My last post was broken apart, taken out of context and
then published to the blogger site. I will take the same risk and make a
few more comments on the subject.

We have seen the supply of meteorites from Morocco continue to sharply
decline the last two years. We feel a lot of material was being hoarded and
let out slowly accounting for the pairing issues. Recently the stockpiles
in Morocco have been depleted accounting for the great amount of rare
material brought to market last year. We call this the "Grand Finale" . We
had been after a fantastic stone for two years and it finally resurfaced on
the latest trip out there demonstrating that some nice material was being
held back. We feel very fortunate to have finally acquired it.

Two List members and myself were officially invited by the Algerians to
acquire material directly from Algeria a few years back. One of the group
flew out there and discovered that most of the material looked exactly like
the meteorites being sold in Morocco. The Algerian government has been
aware of the value of meteorites for some time and was even looking for
funding to build a new museum with meteorites being the central focus. We
were asked to finance this museum with no guarantee of returns so we stepped
away from the offer. Recognizing the value of these meteorites and
realizing the majority of what was being sold in Morocco actually came
through Algeria, the Algerian government decided to create new laws
protecting this treasure.

They are now enforcing these laws and a few arrests have been made. Even
the so-called nomads are not immune to arrest which was demonstrated
recently. Word of the arrests has now traveled like wildfire through the
nomadic communities responsible for bringing these stones into Morocco.
They will no longer take the risk of bringing these meteorites over the
border and into the markets so they will stay on the ground. Nobody wants
to get caught with a meteorite on their person in Algeria. The supply was
dwindling before the recent arrests so this just served to hasten the
process.

There are no more stockpiles that we are aware of left in Morocco. It is not
even worth the expense of flying over there anymore as the supply is now
down to a trickle. Where there used to hundreds of kilograms to pick over,
now there is less than ten kilograms. I am sure meteorites will still come
from Morocco but only at a mere fraction of what once flowed, the gold rush
is over.

I believe more meteorites will come from North America than Morocco within a
very short time period.

Kind Regards,

------------------------------------
Adam Hupe
The Hupe Collection
Team LunarRock
IMCA 2185
raremeteorites_at_comcast.net
Received on Sat 30 Apr 2005 02:22:30 PM PDT