[meteorite-list] Pat's Stabilizing Process {was: The trials...}

Wed Feb 23 10:12:07 EST 2011

Hello List,

Pat is working on a 1.2 kilo piece of Admire I found last year, yes it 
started rusting.

I will know the results soon, what I have seen so far, I think I will be 
stop the rusting.
I will come back to the list with my findings.

Tim Heitz

MIDWEST METEORITES  http://www.meteorman.org

314-596-1435
Member IMCA-4781
International Meteorite Collectors Association

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Gilmer" <meteoritemike at gmail.com>
To: "JoshuaTreeMuseum" <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com>
Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 8:06 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] The Trials and Tribulations in 
DealingwithLando wners

> OR, put the Admire masses through the Pat Mulvany process, which will
> render them completely stable on par with Esquel or the world's most
> stable pallasites.
>
> Admire is a pretty meteorite, and once the rusting issue is taken care
> of, it can stand on it's own against other pallasites.
>
> No need to dissolve them in acid and try to sell the gemstones as jewelry.
>
> Doubt Pat's process?  That's fine - hang on to your rusters until they
> fall apart.
>
> Best regards,
>
> MikeG
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Mike Gilmer - Galactic Stone & Ironworks Meteorites
>
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>
>
> On 2/22/11, JoshuaTreeMuseum <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com> wrote:
>> OK, fair enough.
>>  So anyway you get Paloma Picasso to design some matching sets of 
>> necklaces,
>> bracelets, earrings, tiaras, rings with shooting star themes. Then have 
>> the
>> writers think up some kind of plot device to get Lindsay Lohan on the 
>> show.
>> Maybe have her waltz into Tiffanny's while Paloma is showing her pallidot
>> jewelry. Then LiLo could shoplift the necklace and viola, a free media
>> advertising blitz. It's a win-win situation. Next thing you know  50-Cent
>> will have a pallidot set in his front tooth. Phil Mickelson will give his
>> wife a pallidot encrusted tiara for their anniversary. There will have to 
>> be
>> movie tie-ins like "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend."  Liz Taylor will
>> wear the world's largest faceted pallidot pendant. Baguette cut 
>> engagement
>> rings will become all the rage........
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------
>> Phil Whitmer
>> ------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Hello List,
>>
>> Wow, what an outpouring of comments today.
>>
>> Let me bring all of you up to speed on this.
>>
>> Five years ago, I partnered with around 10 or so friends and they 
>> combined
>> some money, and I offered up some time and we started hunting for 
>> meteorites
>> together.  We choose to go to a certain location in Kansas where 
>> pallasites
>> had been found in the past.
>>
>> We chose this location after I had my success locating some pallasite
>> meteorites at the Brenham strewnfield.
>> We got land leases to hunt, without any promise of any big money, no talk 
>> of
>> Millions, or thousands or even hundreds of dollars to anyone.  We just
>> started hunting and we started finding meteorites.  Some of my friends, 
>> at
>> least 8 of us in the group, were very connected meteorite dealers and we
>> decided to try to sell some of our finds, we tried and we tried and we
>> tried, and we sold one meteorite.  We contacted virtually all the
>> institutions with notable meteorite collections and none of them wanted 
>> to
>> either buy or to trade for any of our specimens.  The one sale was made, 
>> and
>> the land owner from where this meteorite came from got his contracted
>> percentage royalty, and he was VERY pleased.  It was truly money from 
>> heaven
>> for him.
>>
>> The meteorites from this particular location have the reputation of being
>> the worst rusting meteorites known to man.  Far worse than Campo, Nantan,
>> Brenham or any other "ruster" one can think of.  So we could understand 
>> why
>> no one wanted to buy any more of this meteorite. It was just too big of a
>> risk for people to take.
>>
>> As we kept finding more and more meteorites, we were challenged with the
>> supply and demand issue.  Much supply, virtually no demand.  Not a good
>> outlook.
>>
>> Then one of the dealers in the group reminded us of the high quality
>> gemstones that had been faceted from the peridot in this meteorite.  So 
>> we
>> took the specimen in the worst condition out of our inventory and 
>> practiced
>> trying to free up some of the olivine that was in it, and sure enough, 
>> there
>> were some amazing gemstones produced.
>>
>> A year and a half ago, we went to all the land owners where we had found
>> meteorites and told them that if we would liquidate all the meteorites we
>> found, we probably would only get $0.10 or $0.15 per gram.   But we felt
>> that as gemstones, we could make more money for everyone.
>>
>> We decided to incorporate our partnership as Palladot Inc, a Kansas
>> corporation, that focused on selling meteorites, mostly in gemstone 
>> format.
>> I am the President, and Jason Phillips is our C.E.O..  We hired Charles
>> Ellias, who is a graduate gemologist with 25 years of experience in the
>> color gemstone market, to manage our operations, including overseeing the
>> faceting, grading and pricing and marketing of the gemstones.
>>
>> Our original contract only promised the landowners that they would earn
>> their royalty on the "wholesale" sale of the meteorites.  We told all the
>> land owners we wanted to pursue the gemstone market as there was very 
>> little
>> demand in the meteorite world for the specimens as meteorites.  It was 
>> one
>> of the landowners that actually suggested "pooling" all of the royalties
>> together, so we wouldn't have to melt down every meteorite, and this way 
>> all
>> the landowners could still share proportionately by their contribution in
>> the profits.
>>
>> It was at that point, that in the spirit of full discloser, we explained 
>> how
>> the gemstone market gave us the best up-side potential for earnings. If a
>> market could be built for these most amazing and rare gemstones with a
>> fascinating story, then we would have the supply to fill the demand 
>> created.
>> And yes, IF there would be millions of dollars of demand created, we 
>> would
>> have millions of dollars of gems.
>>
>> All of the land owners, except for one, agreed to pool their royalty
>> interest together and join us in the gem market.
>> The one landowner that didn't want to go to the gem business with us, was
>> happy to take his portion "in kind" and we gave him his meteorites.  All 
>> the
>> others signed a new agreement that pooled their royalties together.
>>
>> One year ago this month, we started selling Palldot Pallasitic Peridot
>> gemstones at the Tucson show (specificially at the Pueblo Show at the
>> Executive Inn.)  It seems we chose the worst year, economically speaking,
>> since the Great Depression to start a business...not to mention, a 
>> business
>> in the luxury jewelry market.
>> But we still made some sales, and our business is growing.
>>
>> Now, back a year and a half ago, the deal we made was that we would share
>> the royalty to the landowners based on the retail profits rather than on 
>> the
>> wholesale sales.  The landowner who was featured in this local TV story 
>> we
>> are all talking about, actually had his attorney look over the new 
>> pooling
>> agreement.  In fact, his attorney made some suggestions to alter it, and 
>> we
>> agreed to his suggested changes.
>>
>> There NEVER was any promise of "getting rich quick."  Never.  Getting 
>> rich
>> over time...maybe, if we played our cards right.
>>
>> But we did state that the sale of just a few gemstones could yield more
>> money than the whole meteorite could fetch on its own.
>>
>> So, for the last several months, this one landowner has been trying to 
>> get
>> Jason and me to "alter his contract."  If it were just a matter of making
>> him happy, there wouldn't be a problem.  BUT there are ALL the other
>> landowners that we are in binding contracts with.  We would make the 
>> others
>> very mad if we gave into this one man's demands at their expense.
>>
>> Of course, if we were in breach of contract, there would be legal 
>> remedies
>> this man could take.  But we aren't in breach of the contract so he chose 
>> to
>> threaten us with going to the investigative reporter at a TV station with
>> his story.   We discussed some options that we could offer him, and still
>> keep the other land owners happy, but they were not what he wanted, so he
>> went to the reporter anyway.
>>
>> At the start, I think the reporter thought there was this huge story, but 
>> I
>> spent nearly two hours of interviews with her, and when she heard my 
>> side,
>> the only thing she had left for her story was that this one landowner was
>> "not happy" that he hadn't seen any profits yet.
>>
>> Well, I am "not happy" that we haven't seen any profits either!
>>
>> But we are doing the best we can.
>>
>> We are making sales, and when there are profits, the stockholders will 
>> get
>> dividends and the landowners will get royalties.
>>
>> We have invested over $100,000 and somewhere north of 3,000 man hours 
>> into
>> this one project.  This landowner has invested zero dollars, and zero 
>> hours.
>> There are a lot of other people that have far more invested, and we ALL 
>> want
>> to see a return.   He will be entitled to his share when profits are
>> generated just as he agreed to a year and a half ago.
>>
>> Now, let me also remind you that news reporters don't care about telling 
>> the
>> whole story.  They only had a few minutes for the segment, and while I 
>> share
>> all of this with the reporter, she (and her editors) decided to run the
>> story for ratings purposes.  Because, everyone I have talked to said this
>> really is a "non-story."   Millions of people everyday are not happy with
>> contracts they entered into in the past.  It isn't news.   Nowhere in the
>> contract does it say that each landowner "has to be happy."  In fact, 
>> that
>> is why you have contracts, because, inevitably, people often become less
>> than happy with the deals they struck over time.
>>
>> Meanwhile, we have an obligation to our shareholders, and to the 
>> landowners
>> to press on and do our best to make all of us as much money as we can. 
>> It
>> might be sad if what we are doing was hurting science, but to be honest, 
>> if
>> there wasn't the potential for profit with the gemstones, we would have 
>> quit
>> hunting a long time ago, and a lot of these rocks would still be 
>> underground
>> rusting away anyway.
>>
>> I know this explanation won't make everyone happy, but I have learned a 
>> long
>> time ago that it isn't my job to make everyone happy.
>>
>> I just do the best I can with the hand I am dealt.
>>
>> Feel free to contact me off the list if you have any further questions.
>>
>> Steve Arnold
>> President, Palladot Inc
>> Co-Host Meteorite Men
>> ArnoldMeteorites.com
>>
>>
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