“It’s called kyawthuite (cha-too-ite), a tiny, tawny-hued grain weighing just a third of a gram (1.61 carats). On first glance, you might mistaken it for amber or topaz; but the unassuming mineral speck has value beyond measure.”

  • @[email protected]
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    92 days ago

    Gemological Institute of America (GIA) Laboratory in Bangkok, Thailand

    These gemologists seem graphologically confused

  • @nelly_man
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    172 days ago

    So this mineral was found in the Mogok region of Myanmar, and the second rarest mineral, painite, was also found in the Mogok region of Myanmar. It sounds like there’s something funky going on there geologically speaking, and it’s probably not a coincidence that the country had been mostly closed off from the rest of the world for decades.

    • @jordanlundOP
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      42 days ago

      Myanmar does have a good quantity of mineral and gemological resources, it wouldn’t surprise me if there were even more unique properties there.

  • Flying Squid
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    873 days ago

    “This is the rarest mineral in the world. Let’s cut off bits to make facets.”

    People are so fucking weird.

    • Todd Bonzalez
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      112 days ago

      Imagine reading the article. I did, and I can tell you that nobody who did would make this comment.

      • Flying Squid
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        -72 days ago

        You caught me. I’m a terrible lying liar who only says things like this to impress people on the internet by making them think I did something stupid instead of something else stupid. It’s all part of my fiendish plan to make people think I’m an idiot. You found me out. Curses!

    • @jordanlundOP
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      1493 days ago

      He didn’t know until after it was faceted…

      “thought the raw gem was a mineral called scheelite. After he faceted the stone, though, he realized that he was looking at something unusual.”

      • Flying Squid
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        783 days ago

        This is what I get for only skimming the article.

        • @essell
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          202 days ago

          Well, when you need to be in every thread that’s gotta limit your reading time

        • @Lost_My_Mind
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          563 days ago

          And this is what I get for reading the comments. NOT having to read the article.

          • Flying Squid
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            193 days ago

            I was in on it early, so I have no excuse other than I need to read more carefully next time. Which I probably won’t remember to do next time.

            • @[email protected]
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              32 days ago

              It’s all good, if you didn’t get it wronf, none would have corrected you and 99/100 that didn’t read the story wouldn’t know. You provided us 35 seconds of insight second hand.

            • @[email protected]
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              143 days ago

              Can someone tldr the whole thing? I’m too lazy to read the title, comments or article.

              (No please don’t, I read it, I’m just here for cheap jokes and giggles)

              • @jordanlundOP
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                183 days ago

                Guy found an interesting rock in a gemstone market in Myanmar, thought it was one thing, made it pretty, found out not only was it something else, it was something never before seen in nature.

                Naturally, now it lives in Los Angeles.

              • Zier
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                113 days ago

                tldr, there was a man from Nantucket…

              • Flying Squid
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                13 days ago

                I only read the above comment up to ‘tldr’ and skimmed the rest so the tldr is that the world’s rarest mineral is so rare that it’s only ever been found once!

        • @affiliate
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          73 days ago

          i hope you learned your lesson

      • @Hugin
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        22 days ago

        Like the guy who cut down the oldest know tree to find out how old it was. It wasn’t known how old it was at the time. (They have found probably older but don’t want to cut them down to find out.)

    • @RubberElectrons
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      2 days ago

      Yeah, it’s pretty nice actually. Cool gardens, gem room, lots of dino and evolution stuff… Not as big as the AMNH in Manhattan, but they did a good job with their smaller space.

  • @iAvicenna
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    293 days ago

    another way to rip off the rich I assume?

    • @[email protected]
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      193 days ago

      If someone starts with $50 billion, and goes down to a mere $35 billion, can you say they were ‘ripped off?’

      • @Burninator05
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        103 days ago

        I think rich people can get ripped off but I also can’t argue that $35B isn’t still insanely rich.

    • @jordanlundOP
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      133 days ago

      It is kinda pretty, in a super 1974 kind of way I guess…

    • @jordanlundOP
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      243 days ago

      FTA:

      “mineralogists were able to relate the stone to synthetic BiSbO4 – bismuth antimonate – though with the formula Bi3+Sb5+O4, an arrangement never before found in nature.”

      So we’ve already KINDA done it, just with less Bi+Sb.

    • @Rapidcreek
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      193 days ago

      It’s the only known natural occurrence of a mineral that (as it happens) has also been synthesized. Many minerals are available as exact synthetics. Diamond is an example.

    • Skua
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      103 days ago

      It seems like we don’t know how it was made in nature, so probably not. We can’t replicate the process until we figure out what it is