Painite

The chemical makeup of painite contains calcium, zirconium, boron, aluminium, and oxygen (CaZrAl₉O₁₅(BO₃)). The mineral also contains trace amounts of chromium and vanadium, which are responsible for Painite's typically orange-red to brownish-red color, 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, but may also be euhedral or orthorhombic. 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.

Discovery and occurrence

Extensive exploration in the area surrounding Mogok, 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.