Painite is a very rare borate mineral. It was first found in

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

by British

mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical mineralogy, optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifact (archaeology), artifacts. Specific s ...

and gem dealer Arthur C.D. Pain who misidentified it as

ruby Ruby is a pinkish-red-to-blood-red-colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapph ...

, until it was discovered as a new gemstone in the 1950s. When it was confirmed as a new mineral species, the mineral was named after him. The chemical makeup of painite contains

calcium Calcium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to it ...

, zirconium,

boron Boron is a chemical element; it has symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid; in its amorphous form it is a brown powder. As the lightest element of the boron group it has three ...

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

, and

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

(CaZrAl₉O₁₅(BO₃)). The mineral also contains trace amounts of

chromium Chromium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6 element, group 6. It is a steely-grey, Luster (mineralogy), lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium ...

and

vanadium Vanadium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-grey, malleable transition metal. The elemental metal is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an ...

, which are responsible for Painite's typically orange-red to brownish-red color,Painite history at Caltech
Minerals.gps.caltech.edu. Retrieved on 2012-05-28. similar to topaz. The mineral's rarity is due to zirconium and boron rarely interacting with each other in nature. The crystals are naturally

hexagonal In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A regular hexagon is d ...

, but may also be euhedral or

orthorhombic In crystallography, the orthorhombic crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems. Orthorhombic Lattice (group), lattices result from stretching a cubic crystal system, cubic lattice along two of its orthogonal pairs by two different factors, res ...

. They also may have no crystalline structure, but usually are accompanied by a crystalline structure. Until late 2004, only two had been cut into faceted gemstones.Ten gemstones that are rarer than diamond
io9.com

Discovery and occurrence

Extensive exploration in the area surrounding

Mogok Mogok (, ; Shan language, Shan: , ) is a town of around 90,000 people in the Thabeikkyin District of Mandalay Region of Myanmar, located north of Mandalay and north-east of Shwebo, Sagaing, Shwebo. History Mogok is believed to be founded in ...

, which comprises a large part of the extremely small region the mineral is known to exist in, has identified several new painite occurrences that have been vigorously explored resulting in several thousand new available painite specimens.Painite history at Caltech
Minerals.gps.caltech.edu. Retrieved on 2012-05-28. File:Painite-266170.jpg, Striated, euhedral painite crystal (size: 0.9×0.8×0.7 cm) File:Painite-255206.jpg,

Corundum Corundum is a crystalline form of aluminium oxide () typically containing traces of iron, titanium, vanadium, and chromium. It is a rock (geology), rock-forming mineral. It is a naturally transparency and translucency, transparent material, but ...

var.

on a large painite crystal,

, Burma. (size: 3.7×3.1×2.3 cm)

References

External links

* {{Gemstone Gemstones Borate minerals Zirconium minerals Aluminium minerals Calcium minerals Hexagonal minerals Minerals in space group 176

Discovery and occurrence

See also

References

External links