The world's rarest gemstone exists only once on earth
Many gemstones such as diamonds, rubies, and sapphires are ores that naturally crystallize substances such as carbon and aluminum oxide. The value of gemstones is determined not only by the beauty of the gemstone itself, but also by the rarity of the natural crystal. And it seems that there is only one of the rarest gemstones in the world.
What is the rarest mineral on Earth?
The rarest gemstone on earth is a gem called 'Kyawthuite '. Kyawthuite is a natural crystal of the substance bismuth antimonate (Bi 3+ Sb 5+ O 4 ), excavated in the Mogok region of Myanmar. The name Kyawthuite comes from Kyaw Thu, a Myanmar mineralogist.
The only Kyawthuite that exists is only 1.61 carats in size and has a reddish orange color. It was certified by the International Mineralogical Society in 2015 and is in the collection of the Los Angeles State Museum of Natural History at the time of writing. Of course, there is only one gem in the world, and there is no price because it is not on the market.
The second rarest gem after Kyawthuite is called 'Painite'. Painite was discovered in Myanmar in the 1950s by British mineralogist and jeweler Arthur Pain. Painite's name comes from its discoverer, Pain.
The raw stone of Pianite is a hexagonal crystal, and the color of the gemstone is deep red, similar to ruby. Until 2004, only two gemstones were cut from the rough.
In a paper published in 2018, a research team led by Professor George Rothman of the California Institute of Technology performed spectroscopic analysis on Painite using a laser and found that the chemical composition of Painite was CaZrAl 9 O 15 (BO 3 ), that is, calcium It was found to be a compound of zirconium, aluminum, boron, and oxygen that also contained trace amounts of chromium and vanadium.
According to Professor Rothman, zirconium is very difficult to bond with boron, so it is quite unusual for Painite to crystallize naturally. We also found that the presence of chromium and vanadium gave Painite a ruby-like color.
Mr. Rothman seems to have collected painite gemstones from jewelers and ore researchers all over the world to conduct research, but it is very difficult to obtain gemstones with quality enough to actually cut into gemstones, and there are 60,000 per carat. It is worth the dollar (about 7.8 million yen).
After that, Mr. Rothman's research revealed the details of Painite, and as gem mining in Myanmar became popular, Painite said that the scarcity value was slightly lower than before 2000. At the time of writing the article, Painite seems to be found only in Myanmar.
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in Science, Posted by log1i_yk