The World’s Rarest Mineral Is So Uncommon It is Solely Ever Been Discovered As soon as : ScienceAlert

There is a mineral so uncommon that just one specimen of it has ever been present in your complete world.

It is known as kyawthuite (cha-too-ite), a tiny, tawny-hued grain weighing only a third of a gram (1.61 carats). On first look, you may mistaken it for amber or topaz; however the unassuming mineral speck has worth past measure.

The stone itself was bought in 2010 at a market in Chaung-gyi in Myanmar by gemologist Kyaw Thu, who thought the uncooked gem was a mineral known as scheelite. After he faceted the stone, although, he realized that he was taking a look at one thing uncommon.

Unable to match the mineral with something recognized, he despatched it to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) Laboratory in Bangkok, Thailand. There, mineralogists have been capable of relate the stone to artificial BiSbO₄ – bismuth antimonate – although with the formulation Bi³⁺Sb⁵⁺O₄, an association by no means earlier than present in nature.

“This is the first in the world. It is not found in other countries,” Thu informed The Myanmar Occasions in 2016.

“From studying in the field and buying stones from the Khanae market, [I could tell that] this stone was a little strange and I bought it. Then, when I reached Yangon, I examined it [and determined that] this was not like any other gem we’ve ever found.”

We do not know a lot concerning the stone itself. It has a saturated orange shade, with a crimson overtone and a white streak; that is the colour of the powder the gem produces when it’s dragged throughout a rough floor. It additionally has hole, tube-shaped inclusions known as en echelon veins which might be brought on by shear stress – proof of its pure formation.

Geologists assume that was possible igneous in origin, an inclusion in a kind of frequent volcanic rock known as pegmatite, frequent within the area the place the stone was discovered. Like granite, pegmatite’s composition is just like that of a fruit cake, with totally different minerals jumbled in; it is common to seek out giant crystals of gems in pegmatite.

Traces of titanium, niobium, tungsten, and uranium within the kyawthuite are according to a pegmatite formation. Moreover, experiments within the lab present that bismuth antimonite crystals kind at excessive temperatures according to the temperatures of cooling magma. Because the mineral seems to be so uncommon, there are possible different particular circumstances about the way it varieties, however we do not know what they’re.

The worth of kyawthuite is presently listed as priceless. The world’s second-rarest gem, a mineral known as painite, is valued at US$50,000 to $60,000 a carat. Oof.

The world’s solely recognized piece of kyawthuite is presently housed safely on the Nationwide Historical past Museum of Los Angeles County.