Denader 002:
Classification: Ungrouped achondrite
Found: 2024, near Gao, Mali
Total known weight: approximately 514 grams
Weathering/Shock: Moderate weathering, high shock stage
Denader 002 is a rare albite-rich achondrite recovered in Mali in 2024. This meteorite exhibits a texture of green pyroxene and olivine crystals set in pale albite feldspar, accompanied by scattered chromite and iron metal grains — a mineral assemblage consistent with a differentiated, once-molten crustal rock rather than a primitive chondrite. It is currently classified simply as "ungrouped achondrite," meaning it doesn't fit cleanly into any of the established achondrite groups (HED, angrite, aubrite, etc.).
The scientifically interesting part of Denader 002's story isn't really the stone in isolation — it's the company it keeps. Over the past several years, meteoriticists have identified a small but growing cluster of ungrouped, plagioclase-dominated achondrites that share an unusual bulk chemistry: feldspar contents in the 60–80 vol% range (sometimes nearly pure albite or anorthite end-members), roughly 20% ortho- or clinopyroxene, and accessory silica polymorphs, phosphate, chromite, troilite, and FeNi metal. A recent survey of this group explicitly lists Denader 002 alongside Erg Atouila 001, Erg Chech 002, GRA 06128/06129, Nema 001, and several Northwest Africa specimens (NWA 6698/16789, 15820, 11575, 11119) as members of this emerging class.
It's worth being precise about terminology here: these are not "paired" meteorites in the strict sense (fragments of one fall, split by atmospheric breakup or recovered as separate stones from the same strewn field). They were found in different places and years — Denader 002 in Mali (2024), Erg Atouila 001 and Erg Chech 002 in the Algeria/Mali Sahara region, Al Bir Lahlou 001 in Western Sahara (2021). Rather, they're grouped scientifically because they appear to represent a related family of silica-rich, feldspathic crustal rocks — possibly sampling similar kinds of early differentiated parent bodies, even if not the same one.