Mineral

13 Rarest Gemstones and Minerals Ever Seen

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• published: 05 Oct 2016
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Here are the 13 most rare and valuable gemstones and minerals ever seen in the world like the blye Benitoite and red diamonds! Subscribe for new videos Monday Wednesday and Friday! 8. Jeremejevite This mineral was discovered way back in 1883 by a French mineralogist named Augustin Alexis Damour, who named it after the Russian scientist Pavel Vladimirovich Eremeev. The crystal was found on Mt. Soktui in Siberia, Russia. Since then, it has been described as being found in the Eifel District of Germany and in the Pamir Mountains in Namibia. This rare aluminum borate mineral is comprised of variable hydroxide and fluoride ions. 7. Poudretteite This mineral was first found during the mid-1960’s in the Poudrette quarry of Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec. However, it wasn’t until 1987 that the poudretteite was fully recognized as a new mineral. Even then, this mineral wasn't described in depth until 2003. As stated by several different sources, it’s believed that only a relative few will ever come into contact with this mineral and let alone ever even hear it mentioned. 6. Grandidierite This is considered to be an extremely rare mineral and gem that was first seen in 1902 on the Island of Madagascar. It was named in honor after the French explorer Alfred Grandidier who once studied the island’s natural history. Grandidierite comes in a bluish-green color and is located almost entirely in Madagascar, although, there was a clean faceted sample that was found in Sri Lanka. Grandidierite is also pleochroic, which means it's able to absorb different wavelengths of light differently and that results in different colors, such is the same ability with the gems tanzanite and alexandrite. 5. Painite This gemstone was first discovered back in the 1950’s in Myanmar by a British mineralogist named Arthur C. D. Pain. For the next several decades only two fragments of the hexagonal mineral were known to exist on earth. By the time the year 2005 rolled around, there were still less than 25 discovered pieces of painite and The Guinness Book of World Records had declared it the world's rarest gemstone mineral. However, that was 11 years ago and since then the origin of the original stones has been found, along with two other major locations that have led to the discovery of thousands of small samples of painite fragments. Even so, they’re still considered one of the world’s rarest minerals. 4. Red Beryl Also known as bixbite, "red emerald", or "scarlet emerald", red beryl was first reported as far back as 1904. Even though its chemical compound is closely similar to that of aquamarines and emeralds, it’s actually considered to be rarer than both of them. What gives the mineral its red color palette is thanks to the presence of ManganeseⅢ+ ions. It can be found in parts of New Mexico and Utah where it’s actually proven to be quite difficult to mine. Because of this, prices for red beryl are known to reach high levels and have even gone on to be around 10,000 per karat for stones. 3. Ammolite This rare gemstone can be found mainly in the eastern region of the Rocky Mountains of North America. Ammolite is an opal-like gemstone that is solely made up of the fossilized shells of extinct animals known as ammonites. This makes ammolite one of the few biogenic gemstones that exist, along with pearls and amber. Ammolites weren’t officially recognized as gemstones until 1981 when they were given official status by the World Jewellery Confederation. That’s also the same year that commercial mining for ammolite began. 2. Tanzanite It’s been said that tanzanite is 1,000 times rarer than a diamond, which might as well be the case considering the fact that it can be found almost entirely near the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. This is where the perfect conditions lie in order to form the mineral. Like grandidierite, tanzanite is able to produce striking shifts in color based on the crystal’s orientation and the certain lighting conditions. Caltech's geology division states this is because the color variations are caused by the existence of vanadium ions. 1. Red Diamonds Did you know that diamonds come in a variety of colors? In fact, diamonds can range from being yellow, brown, colorless, blue, green, black, pink, orange, and red. That’s also the same order of how rare each diamond is classified as with yellow being the least and red being the most. Not only that but diamonds are also the hardest natural substances that form here on earth. Just like the colorless diamond, the red diamond is made purely out of carbon, however, what gives the diamond its red color is actually a deformation of their atomic structure that’s known as a “plastic deformation”. The Moussaieff Red is the largest red diamond in the world among the little known other red diamonds that have been discovered.