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Australian thinks he found gold, but discovers meteorite 16 times more valuable and surprises scientists and collectors

Written by Valdemar Medeiros
Published 09/01/2025 às 10:08
Australian thinks he found gold, but discovers meteorite 16 times more valuable and surprises scientists and collectors
(Image: Melbourne Museum/Disclosure)

Australian finds 17kg meteorite while searching for gold. The billion-year-old rock could be worth up to 16 times more than gold, stunning scientists.

In 2015, Australian David Hole, who has a habit of walking through the Goldfields region of Australia with a metal detector, thought he had found a gold nugget, when in fact he found a meteorite up to 16 times more valuable than gold, without necessarily realizing the nature of the rock. Thinking there was gold inside it, he tried everything to open the object, but without success.

Meteorite found by Australian weighs 17 kg

Observing the resistance of the object, which is up to 16 times more valuable than gold, against all his gold-hunting tools (even acid was poured on it, without change), the Australian gave up and took the rock to the Melbourne Museum, where its nature was revealed to him by Geologist Dermot Henry, who works at the institution.

The meteor had this sculpted, kind of drawn look, according to Henry. This happens when they pass through the atmosphere: the rocks start to melt on their exterior, and the atmosphere sculpts them. 

According to the expert, he has worked at the museum for almost four decades, and has always received stones for analysis that people think are meteorites. Over the course of almost 40 years, this has only been true on two occasions, and the meteorite that the Australian thought contained gold was one of them.

(Image: Melbourne Museum/Disclosure)

Together with another geologist, Bill Birch, Dermot Henry published a paper with his conclusions from his studies of the meteorite: it is a rock up to 16 times more valuable than gold, approximately 4,6 billion years old, weighing 17 kilograms (kg) and with a high concentration of iron in its composition, which makes it a “common fifth-category chondrite”. In less technical terms, it is a relatively common type of meteorite.

Where did the meteorite found by the Australian come from?

According to Henry, meteorites are the cheapest form of space exploration. They take us back in time, providing clues about the age, formation and chemistry of our solar system, including Earth. Some even provide a kind of 'window' into the interior of our planet.

In some meteorites, there is still the presence of stardust, with particles older than our solar system, which shows how stars form and evolve to create the elements of the periodic table.

The paper can't say for sure, but Henry believes that this meteorite, which is up to 16 times more valuable than gold, must have come from the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter. The region is known in space studies as an area that concentrates a lot of material linked to the beginning of the solar system, when the Earth was still a big pile of chondrites. Eventually, gravity pulled them together, forming the Earth, but some of these rocks escaped and ended up in the belt.

Understand why the Australian mistook a meteorite for gold

The confusion between the meteorite and gold is also easy to explain. The Maryborough district, where the rock was found, is located in the Goldfields, a region where the peak of the Australian gold rush occurred in the past. It is not uncommon for metal hunters like Australian David Hole to be a common sight there, always with metal detectors at hand in search of some gold nugget to sell.

Henry argues that the man was lucky, as thousands of nuggets have been found, but only 17 meteorites have been identified in the state of Victoria. However, even though the meteorite is up to 16 times more valuable than gold, in Australia, the law states that space artifacts are considered “Crown property”.

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Carlos
Carlos
09/01/2025 18:55

AI-generated text, very repetitive.

Jorge CPF
Jorge CPF
13/01/2025 08:00

The guy finds a meteorite, and over there the thing is “property of the crown”, what a shame…lol

Zacarias
Zacarias
In reply to  Jorge CPF
14/01/2025 19:08

If it were here in Brazil it would be Lula's property, lol

Valdemar Medeiros

Journalist in training, specialist in creating content with a focus on SEO actions. Writes about the Automotive Industry, Renewable Energy and Science and Technology

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