this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2024
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"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."

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[–] [email protected] 88 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

"This is the rarest mineral in the world. Let's cut off bits to make facets."

People are so fucking weird.

[–] [email protected] 149 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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."

[–] [email protected] 78 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

This is what I get for only skimming the article.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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] 14 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

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)

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

OP was too lazy to read your whole comment to know you were JK'g.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It seems. It's perfect 💕

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

I thought the gag about Los Angeles being the home of all things not found previously in nature is as cheap as it gets. ;)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

tldr, there was a man from Nantucket...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

His junk was too big for a bucket...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks 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] 20 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

i hope you learned your lesson

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

yeah me too. i love skimming

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks 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.)

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

another way to rip off the rich I assume?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It was a different time back then.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago

Corinthean everything back then. Leather, columns, baby food... everything.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

They have vibranium. Just saying.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks 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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

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

These gemologists seem graphologically confused

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Surly we can just manufacture it with some fancy tech now?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 weeks 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.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

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.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

you didn't read

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Anything else good at the natural history museum in LA?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks 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.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

I found one in yo momma last night.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

No this is a different speck