tectites

Friends from Perth, WA have had considerable success prospecting for gold over the years, but the area they are now working is also producing tectites.

The picture shows some that they recently found, the largest is 17gm and 37x24mm. They have asked me if they have any value, but tectites are outside of my experience, so I thought I'd try and get the benefit of MINDAT members for them.

Any knowledge on value out there please!

You really need to have these tested before you can call them tectites.Currently a friend of mine is going through this process he has been finding many of these here in central Oregon, in the Cascade mountain range.Like some of his some of what you havelooks to be obsidian.Value if Tectites of that size and shape from a well known sprewn maybe $35.00 for the largest to $15.00 to $20.00 for the smaller ones.Good luck.PS to have these tested you will need to contact a local university and speak with there Geology department. Good luck Mate!

Gordon, unlike Oregon, which has thousands (millions?) of tons of obsidian, there isn't any obsidian in Western Australia, so these are indeed likely to be real tektites, and the aerodynamic shapes match too.

Living on the B.C./WA border (British Columbia/Washington) I naively assumed Ian was talking about things found near some Washington town that I never heard of called Perth. So Gordon's caution made sense to me. Thanks Alfredo, I'll try to be less provincial in the future.B)-

Ian, Going back to the original question about value, there is a huge disparity in value of tektites depending on how prolific they are in their strewn field. From the most abundant fields, like China and Thailand, one can buy quite large ones at the big wholesale shows for as little as $10 each. From strewnfields where tektites are scarce and hard to get, like Georgia, USA, they aren't often seen for sale and even tiny ones can cost $100 or more. Australian ones are likely to be somewhere inbetween in value, although I'm certainly no tektite specialist, so this is just a very vague opinion. Although tektites aren't really meteorites, they tend to attract the same aficionados as meteorites, and it is the meteorite dealers who sell most of them, so check out some meteorite dealer websites for better info on prices and buyers.

Shape influences price too. Some of the more classic aerodynamic shapes, like flanged buttons for example, bring much higher prices than the more ordinary blobs.

Sorry about the mistake i thought he was speaking of Washington state.Though i should have known being ive been to Perth a couple of times great people even greater city.

Ian
They are not treally rare in the market, at least in these sizes; have a look at [www.australites.com], it will give you a good idea of prices; look for ones with a similar size and shape. There are lots on ebay too.

Regards,
Ralph

thanks for the input guys

didn't think that they were worth a lot, but as i said, tectites are rather outside my own experience.

anyway, will pass your thoughts on to my friends

I think the golden coloured one might be worth something. :)

Jolyon

i think that their largest nugget was 20 oz, so they usually throw the small yellow ones back to grow bigger :)

see you in Munich Jolyon

To hell with the tektites... check out that gold nugget!!

I'd almost be willing to put up with the insane temperatures and horrifying menagerie of deadly wildlife to be found in Australia if I could collect some of that.

Thanks for the pic!

T

Hello Tim,

I thought you were into catch and release? Also studies suggest that they will grow larger if released in the right place!