Most human eyes have seen the mystical beauty of quartz, possibly without realizing that it is the most common mineral on Earth.but which is the rarest?
Minerals are scattered everywhere on our planet, from glittering specks in gravel or sand to true hidden gems. According to the American Geological Society, Minerals are naturally occurring elements or compounds that are inorganic, meaning they do not contain carbon.
Each type of mineral exhibits order in its internal structure and has a unique chemical composition. The shape that a mineral’s crystals take, as well as its other physical properties, can vary.
The rarest mineral on Earth
The rarest mineral on Earth is kyawthuite. Only one crystal is known to exist, found in the Mogok region of Myanmar. Caltech Minerals Database describes it as a small deep orange gemstone (1.61 carats) that the International Mineralogical Association officially recognized in 2015.
However, little is known about kyawthuite, so let’s move on to the second rarest mineral in existence.. This is painite, which appears as deep red hexagonal crystals (although there are some pinkish exceptions). Although painite is now more easily found than before, this mineral remains rare and its chemical structure makes it a scientific enigma.
painita
In 1952, English gem collector and dealer Arthur Pain acquired two crimson crystals in Myanmar, according to George Rossman, a CalTech professor of mineralogy who has been researching painite since the 1980s and he maintains an extensive database of all the samples he has analyzed microscopically.
Pain thought the crystals were rubies, for which the region is famous, but unknown to him, they were actually something much rarer.
Painite (who took the surname from Arthur) is sometimes unearthed along with rubies and other gemstones. That explains why Pain assumed the crystals were rubies when, according to Rossman, he donated them to the British Museum in 1954 for further study. Another sample of painite from Myanmar turned up in 1979 and, until 2001, those three crystals were the only known specimens of painite in the world.
