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Strange rock thought to be gold emerges far more valuable

WION Web Team
New DelhiUpdated: Nov 23, 2021, 12:14 PM IST
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Representative image Photograph:(AFP)

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Man who found that strange rock could not break it by drilling, using sledgehammer or even by dousing it in acid

There's nothing like striking gold, especially when you are looking for something valuable. And a man thought the same when he found unusually heavy rock. In 2015, David Hole was prospecting using a metal detector in Maryborough Regional Park near Melbourne, Australia. The rock was unusually heavy, reddish and was lying in yellow clay.

He was sure that he had found a nugget of gold. Marybourough, where he found that rock lies in the Goldsfield region. 

David Hole tried to break the rock. He used a sledgehammer, a drill and even doused the rock in acid. But no luck. The rock remained intact.

He kept the rock anyway. And years later he found out that it was far more valuable than gold.

Finally, he took the rock to Melbourne Museum for identification. It was revealed that the rock was a meteorite.

"It had this sculpted, dimpled look to it," Melbourne museum geologist Dermot Henry told The Sydney Morning Herald.

The researchers concluded that the rock was 4.6 billion years old! It hadn't been on Earth during all this period though.

When solar system was in infancy, it was a swirling mass of gas and dust. This particular meteorite may have been one of the millions of space rocks floating in space. Researchers concluded that it may have fallen between 100 and 1000 years ago.