[meteorite-list] Meteorite prospection forbidden in Algeria

From: Peter Marmet <p.marmet_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Mar 21 13:24:56 2005
Message-ID: <4232E4FD.4031792B_at_dplanet.ch>

Hi list,

Pel? Pierre-Marie wrote:

> I read today an article (see following link, in french
> : http://www.liberte-algerie.com/edit.php?id=35914).
> Algeria police has been trained to recognize
> meteorites and are forbidding meteorite hunting on
> their territory. Prospecting will lead to arrest and
> jail.
>
> I'm afraid this kind of things will be applied to
> other northern Africa countries sooner or later...

Very interesting, Pierre-Marie!

Here's a Babel Fish Translation of the French text:

Vis-a-vis with the plundering of the Algerian meteoritic inheritance in the south
This very lucrative trade, which amounts to thousands of dollars, would be
controlled by a network of Moroccan traffickers who run out the invaluable stones
in Europe. They are thousands or rather million dollars which Algeria loses,
almost without the knowledge, in the repetitive plundering of the meteorites -
these invaluable stones which fall from the sky - hidden in the desert vastnesses
of the Sahara. Foreign "tourists", special correspondents, various nationalities
have delivered themselves, for a few years already, to the flight of this
inheritance of very great scientific value, but especially... commercial. The
national Gendarmerie finally discovered the pot with "brambles" and decided to set
up a device to bar the road with the plunderers which exploit with impunity the
natural richnesses of the country. A promotion of twenty-five gendarmes has been
just formed by the researchers of Universit? of Bab-Ezzouar in the techniques of
recognition of the meteorites, specifies an official statement of the command of
this institution made public yesterday. These elements equipped with average the
techniques suitable should be able to recognize the invaluable stone with its
characteristics in the areas under their control which are Tamanrasset, B?char and
Ouargla. This phenomenon is obviously far from being a fact various since only one
gram of a meteorite costs between 10 000 and 20 000 dollars, according to precise
details' of the gendarmerie. Better still, the gram of a meteorite of the type
"chassignite" culminates with... 70 000 US dollars. It is thus permissible to
imagine the amazing sums garnered by these plundering tourists on the back of the
Algerians. And the foreign laboratories of research in geology, astronomy and
geophysics, inter alia, are particularly fond of delicacies for these small
objects which are worth gold because of their scientific value. And they are ready
to put the full price to obtain them... Algerian desert. This very lucrative
trade, as the official statement of the gendarmerie underlines it, thus became the
sport of predilection of the tourists who take the Southern destination In fact,
the gendarmerie refers to the arrest, last 20 November, of the group of German
"tourists" with 23 H with the National park of Tassili in possession of the
archaeological parts, but also of meteorites. The latter were left there cheaply
since after three months of imprisonment, they were released. A quite informed
source contacted yesterday by precise Libert?, however, that it is a network
organized Moroccan traffickers who is behind the diversion of this resource.
Indeed, a co-operative called Tafilalit Derfoud, based with the kingdom, sends its
"tourists" or work directly with autochtones to which it gives from the ridiculous
sums with the help of the famous stones. Once the delivered goods, the box the
stamp of the Moroccan "label" - to include/understand the Moroccan desert - not to
wake up the suspicions and n the other hand dispatches it at the various Western
laboratories of sounding and stumbling currencies. Our sources add that this
network of plunderers operates, in particular in the perimeters of Amgoud and
Tinbiter in the Algerian, famous South for its wealth of meteorites which accounts
for 27% of the African meteoritic craters. The national Gendarmerie notes that
these stones are particularly appraisals by the researchers "to include/understand
the operation of the solar system, but also to detect the presence of the water
molecules on the planet Mars". As from recent studies they concluded as the
discovery of these meteorites in the basement is an almost infallible index of the
presence of hydrocarbons. There is thus a double need to protect this natural
inheritance "threatened by covetousness of the foreign collectors and the research
laboratories" to paraphrase the official statement of the gendarmerie.

I hope you can get the idea!

Peter Marmet
Received on Sat 12 Mar 2005 07:47:57 AM PST