Gold inclusion in meteorite?

[cyberfish2]

A metal detecting friend of mine has found a quarter sized fusion crusted meteorite with what looks like a small visible gold inclusion in a crevice. Is there a way to verify gold that won't hurt the meteorite? Would gold have burned off during the fall?

I'm new to the forum, and joined to see if there was an answer to this question.

I told him I thought it had to be an earth rock; we live in the heart of the 49'er gold rush country, and it was found locally.

I had never heard of a meteorite with gold in it - until I did a little research. One theroy holds that all the gold in the earth's mantle came from a meteor(s) bombardment some billions of years ago, and there have been a very few meteorites with traces of gold found, verified thru destructive testing, which I don't want to do.

I told him I thought it would be very valuable. He wants to keep it, but is interested in finding out if it really is gold, and what it might be worth. It is one of 14 pieces found at the same site, and the only one showing possible gold. The largest chunk is about baseball sized. I'll try to get pictures to post, next time I see him.

[DolanDave]

Can you get a picture of it and post here online?

[frank c]

What you are seeing and referring to is most likely visible "TROILITE" troilite

[Goldfinger]

No offense but are you absolutely sure your friend found a meteorite? We have a lot of first time posters here that say someone found a meteorite only to find out later it was really something else.

Steve

[Johnno]

G'Day cyber

Having some pictures of these finds would help immensely. There's a lot of trace metals found in meteorites, some more than others. I've seen indications of copper, nickel, etc.. but there's also a lot of other minerals that would cast the illusion of gold. Troilite was mentioned, that is one. I'll keep this simple, olivine crystals will also reflect gold. there's also the peacock or rainbow effect on some fusion crust due to burn off of trace elements.

And as I think you know, some meteorites do contain nanodiamonds. So yes, it is possible but only in trace elements, not in quanitities that all of us gold prospectors would jump. As I said earlier and what others have said, some images, hopefully in focus. You don't need to get too close, good picture of the whole stone and possibly a filed off portion to expose a window into the interior would be a good start.

Looking forward to those images to comment further. Now I'll get off my soap box and allow the rest of the great members here with great knowledge to chime in.