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 all the world.

It is referred to 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 referred to as scheelite. After he faceted the stone, although, he realized that he was 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 in a position to relate the stone to artificial BiSbO₄ – bismuth antimonate – although with the components 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 advised The Myanmar Instances 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 colour, with a purple 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 referred to as en echelon veins which are attributable to shear stress – proof of its pure formation.

Geologists assume that was seemingly igneous in origin, an inclusion in a sort of widespread volcanic rock referred to as pegmatite, widespread within the area the place the stone was discovered. Like granite, pegmatite’s composition is just like that of a fruit cake, with completely different minerals jumbled in; it’s normal to seek out massive crystals of gems in pegmatite.

Traces of titanium, niobium, tungsten, and uranium within the kyawthuite are in step with a pegmatite formation. Moreover, experiments within the lab present that bismuth antimonite crystals type at excessive temperatures in step with the temperatures of cooling magma. For the reason that mineral seems to be so uncommon, there are seemingly different particular circumstances about the way it types, however we do not know what they’re.

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

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