Can Meteorites Contain Gold or Diamonds?
Meteorite Composition
Yes, meteorites do contain gold and diamonds, but almost never in concentrations that would interest a jeweler or a prospector. The real treasure inside a meteorite is scientific. Trace amounts of gold, platinum-group metals, and microscopic nanodiamonds offer a chemical record of the early solar system that you cannot find in any Earth rock.
Written by Brian McDonald, IMCA #3323, Treasure Coast Meteorite Co.
Gold in Meteorites
Gold is present in essentially every meteorite ever analyzed. It is one of the so-called siderophile elements, a group of metals that bond preferentially with iron, which is why most of Earth's primordial gold sank into the planet's core during early differentiation. Meteorites, especially iron meteorites and the metal phases of stony meteorites, preserve a sample of the gold abundance that existed in the solar nebula before this sorting took place.
Typical concentrations, however, are extraordinarily low. Most iron meteorites contain gold at levels between a few parts per billion (ppb) and roughly two parts per million (ppm). The highest gold concentrations measured in iron meteorites are in the IAB and IIICD groups, but even there the figures hover around 2 ppm, far below the cutoff grade for any commercial mine on Earth (the lowest-grade economically viable gold mines on Earth typically operate at 0.5 to 1 ppm, but they process millions of tons of ore to extract it).
Indeed, far from being a source of gold, meteorites are believed to have delivered much of the gold accessible at Earth's surface today. According to research summarized by NASA and published in journals such as Nature, gold-rich material from late-arriving meteoritic impacts during the so-called "late heavy bombardment" enriched Earth's mantle and crust after the original gold had already settled into the core.
Diamonds in Meteorites
Diamonds in meteorites are real and remarkable, but they are typically microscopic. Two main varieties are recognized: presolar nanodiamonds and impact diamonds.
Presolar nanodiamonds
Carbonaceous chondrites such as the famous Allende and Murchison meteorites contain enormous numbers of nanodiamonds, each only a few nanometers across (one nanometer is a billionth of a meter). They are so small that hundreds of thousands of them could fit across the width of a human hair. Despite their size, they are among the most scientifically valuable materials known. Isotopic analysis shows that some of these nanodiamonds formed in the atmospheres of dying stars before our solar system existed, making them older than the Sun.
Impact diamonds
Some meteorites contain larger diamonds (still mostly microscopic but visible under a microscope) that formed during high-energy impacts. The Canyon Diablo iron meteorite, which created Meteor Crater in Arizona, contains diamonds produced by the shock pressures of its impact. The Almahata Sitta meteorite, recovered after asteroid 2008 TC3 exploded over Sudan in 2008, contains diamonds large enough that researchers have argued they record the existence of a lost Mars-sized planet from the early solar system, as detailed in a 2018 Nature Communications study.
Diamond is the highest-pressure form of carbon. In space, certain nanodiamonds form by chemical vapor deposition in stellar outflows. In meteorite parent bodies, larger diamonds form when impact shocks momentarily reach pressures comparable to those deep inside Earth, briefly transforming carbon-bearing material into diamond.
Other Precious Materials Inside Meteorites
Beyond gold and diamonds, meteorites contain a surprising suite of valuable elements, almost always in trace concentrations.
Pallasite Olivine: The Closest Thing to a "Gem" Meteorite
If any meteorite resembles a piece of jewelry, it is a pallasite. Pallasites are a rare type of stony-iron meteorite consisting of an iron-nickel metal matrix studded with translucent olivine crystals, which are the same mineral known as peridot when found in gem quality on Earth. A polished slice of Esquel, Imilac, or Brenham can show olivine grains in glowing green, yellow, and amber, set into a silvery metal lattice that no jeweler could ever fabricate.
Pallasites are extraordinarily rare. Of the more than 75,000 classified meteorites, fewer than 200 are pallasites. The combination of beauty, scientific significance, and rarity has made polished pallasite slices among the most prized specimens in the meteorite world, often valued well above their weight in gold simply because there is no source of replacement material.
A meteorite's real treasure is not the few atoms of gold trapped in its metal, but the four-and-a-half billion years of solar system history locked into its structure. Nothing on Earth tells that story.
Could You Mine a Meteorite for Gold?
For all practical purposes, no. The combined weight of all gold ever recovered from meteorites would be a small fraction of a single day's output from a working gold mine. Even an unusually gold-rich iron meteorite would, after expensive refining, yield gold worth a tiny fraction of the meteorite's own value as a collector or museum specimen.
The story is different for asteroid mining proposals, which envision extracting metals from undisturbed asteroids in space rather than from the rare and small pieces that fall to Earth. A medium-sized metallic asteroid such as 16 Psyche, which NASA is currently studying with a dedicated mission, may contain platinum-group metals worth astronomical sums in principle, though the engineering challenges of accessing them are enormous. You can read more about the NASA Psyche mission and its scientific goals on the official mission page.
What Makes Meteorites Truly Valuable
The market value of a meteorite has almost nothing to do with its gold or diamond content. What collectors and researchers pay for is rarity, provenance, and scientific significance. A small unclassified piece of an iron meteorite typically sells for a few dollars per gram. A well-documented lunar or Martian specimen can sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars per gram. A historic witnessed fall, with documentation tracing it back to a specific event, can be worth more still.
This is why owning a meteorite is more like owning a piece of ancient history than a piece of bullion. Each specimen is a fragment of an event that happened tens or hundreds of millions of years before any human civilization, and that arrived on Earth in a single fiery moment that was, in most cases, witnessed and recorded.
Related Questions
Browse Authentic Meteorites
Frequently Asked Questions
Do meteorites contain gold?
Yes, but in trace amounts. Most meteorites contain gold at concentrations measured in parts per billion to a few parts per million. Iron meteorites have the highest gold content, but even those are uneconomical to mine for the metal itself.
Are there really diamonds in meteorites?
Yes. Carbonaceous chondrites contain large numbers of nanodiamonds, some of which formed in stars that died before the Sun was born. A few meteorites also contain larger impact diamonds formed by shock pressures during collisions in space.
Can you cut and wear meteorite gold or diamonds as jewelry?
Not in any meaningful sense, because the concentrations are too low. However, polished slices of pallasites, with their translucent olivine crystals embedded in iron-nickel metal, are widely used in fine jewelry and watchmaking, and faceted gem-quality olivines from pallasites are sometimes sold as "pallasite peridot."
What is the most valuable meteorite material?
Lunar and Martian meteorites are typically the most expensive per gram, often selling for hundreds to thousands of dollars per gram. Documented witnessed falls and unique pallasites can also command very high prices. Value comes from rarity and scientific significance, not from precious metal content.
Did meteorites bring gold to Earth?
Most of the gold in Earth's accessible crust is believed to have been delivered by meteoritic and asteroidal material that struck Earth after the planet's core finished forming. Earth's earlier complement of gold had already sunk into the core with the iron.
