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History of the discovery
The first specimen was found during fieldwork in June 1967 by geologist F. A. Mednikov, at approximately 63°39′ N, 150°09′ E. An iron mass weighing approximately 300 kg was lying in the bed of a stream, a tributary of the Khekandya River, in the upper reaches of the Yasachnaya River in Magadan Oblast. In October of the same year, a second metallic mass weighing 51 kg was discovered with a metal detector about 20 meters from the first find.
The first specimen was delivered to the Committee on Meteorites of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, where it was studied and classified as an iron meteorite, specifically a medium-structured octahedrite (Iron IIE-Om).
The next expedition to this remote and difficult-to-access area took place only in August 2004 and produced completely unexpected results: numerous new specimens of the meteorite containing olivine grains were discovered.
Analytical studies conducted by international scientists in 2007 demonstrated that the iron and stony-iron fragments originated from the same parent celestial body, leading to the meteorite's reclassification. Seymchan was subsequently moved into the Pallasite Main Group (PMG), a relatively rare class of meteorites.