NWA 3151 is the first unquestionable Brachinite to be found in Northwest Africa. Although this meteorite was rumored to exist as early as 2003, it took until an expedition in 2005 to acquire it. Several weeks of tough negotiations were required in order to gain title to this beautiful stone because the Moroccan dealer knew he had something special and was not going to let it go cheap. He was told it was a Chassignite and only after convincing him that it was not, he was willing to sell. He realized a handsome reward for holding back and we added a record setting and world-class specimen to our collection so everybody won. The real winners are collectors and scientists who now have unprecedented access to this rare and interesting material. All available material was cut very thin and polished on one side to a very high level, making for beautiful display and study specimens.
NWA 3151 is the seventh member discovered to belong to this very exclusive and ultra rare group. The Total Known Weight is exactly 1500 grams in a single oriented stone with a translucent honey brown crust. It measured 115mm x 130mm x 85mm prior to cutting. Even with the addition of NWA 3151, by weight, Brachinites are about as rare as it gets. They are even scarcer than Angrites, Lunaites and SNCs.
Meteoritical Bulletin entry for NWA 3151:
Click here for the Official classification of NWA 3151