What Is Painite Used For? Uses, Rarity and Mines

Painite is used almost only as a collector’s gemstone and as a research mineral. Gem Rock Auctions’ seller guide puts the top-quality price at US$50,000 to US$60,000 per carat (retrieved 26 October 2026), and the mineral has no known industrial use. Sources describe it only as a gem, a museum specimen and a subject for crystal-structure and geology studies. This page explains what that means: what painite is, how few crystals exist, where it forms near Mogok in Myanmar, how it is told apart from ruby, and what satellite data can and cannot tell you about it.

What is painite used for?

Painite has three real uses, and none of them is industrial.

• Gemstone. Cut painite is a deep red to brownish-orange stone. The International Gem Society (IGS) notes a hardness of 8 and strong brilliance, but also that most rough is heavily included and fractured, so cutters keep stones small and shallow (IGS, updated 31 January 2025).
• Collector and museum specimen. The first crystal sits in the Natural History Museum in London, and the mineral is traded mostly as crystals, ruby-encrusted specimens and a few faceted stones.
• Research. Mineralogists use painite to study an unusual crystal structure and the skarn rocks it forms in. Its structure was solved in 1976 and revisited in 2004, and a 2005 conference paper traced its origin to a skarn deposit (Caltech Mineral Spectroscopy Server, updated October 2025).

Painite contains boron and zirconium, two elements with industrial markets, but it is never mined for them. The amounts are far too small, and the crystals are worth far more as gems. It is a feature of one gem district, not a guide mineral that explorers look for across regions.

Painite properties at a glance

The table gives the standard identification data. Hardness, density and optics come from the IGS gem sheet; the formula and crystal system come from the Caltech page and Webmineral, which cite the 1976 and 2004 structure studies.

Specific gravity is the weight of a stone compared with water. Pleochroism means a crystal shows different colours when viewed from different directions. Vanadium and chromium give painite its colour, according to Caltech’s analyses.

Painite is hexagonal, not orthorhombic, and its ideal formula has no silicon, so it is a borate rather than a borosilicate.

How rare is painite? Counting the crystals

Painite was once the standard answer to “what is the rarest gem”. Gem Rock Auctions reports that painite held the Guinness record for the rarest gemstone in 2005, with fewer than 24 known in 2004 (retrieved 26 October 2026). Live Science now ranks kyawthuite first and painite second, because the IMA approved kyawthuite in 2015 and only a 1.61-carat stone is known.

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How many painite crystals were known

different counts: crystals known to 2001, painites in Caltech’s register in May 2005, crystals and fragments recovered by 2025 (a minimum)

The count changed fast in the 2000s. Until 2001 only three crystals were known, according to the IGS. By May 2005 Caltech’s register had reached 22 painites, and the IGS now says that over a thousand crystals and fragments have been recovered, most of them not facetable. Caltech and The Conversation both say several thousand pieces have come out of the ground since the first finds near Mogok.

So painite is no longer “one of a handful”. It is still scarce as a gem, because few pieces are clean enough to cut.

Why painite is so rare

The cause is chemical. Zirconium and boron do not normally occur together in rocks, and painite is the only mineral known to contain both, according to Gem Rock Auctions and The Conversation. Painite needs a very particular rock chemistry in the contact zone between marble and granite, which explains why it appears in only a small part of one gem district. For the wider field, see our list of the rarest minerals on Earth and our guide to the rarest mineral in the universe.

The first painite crystals and how big they were

Pain donated the first crystal, 1.7 g, to the British Museum in 1952. It was described in 1957 by Claringbull, Hey and Payne in the Mineralogical Magazine. A second, larger crystal of 2.118 g is on public display in London. A third, only 0.27 g, was spotted in a parcel of rough at the Gemological Institute of America in 1979 (Caltech).

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Weight of early painite crystals

grams, as recorded in the Caltech painite register

In 2007 a brown specimen that the museum had labelled tourmaline with rubies (catalogued in 1914) was shown by microprobe analysis to be painite, so the mineral had sat unrecognised in a drawer for decades.

The fourth crystal, found in Myanmar in 2001, weighed about 11 g (55 carats) and was the largest early find. At the Tucson show in February 2007 a dealer displayed a crystal of about 100 g, together with larger painite-and-ruby clusters. One carat is 0.2 g, so even the early record crystals are small by gem standards.

Painite beside other rare gems

Painite sits in a small group of gems that were first known from a handful of stones. The table uses the Gem Rock Auctions and IGS sheets, so the figures are the sellers’ and gemologists’ summaries, not a census.

All four are hard enough for jewellery, and painite, taaffeite and musgravite were each first mistaken for or linked to a more common stone. What sets painite apart is the source: one country and one gem belt, with the best material from a few skarn mines that have since closed or run out.

Painite timeline: from one crystal to a mapped skarn

The history shows how a mineral moves from “unique” to “known source” once geologists understand the rock it forms in.

• 1952 to 1957. Pain gives the first crystal to the British Museum; the Mineralogical Magazine paper names painite in 1957.
• 1976. Moore and Araki solve the crystal structure and show its link to jeremejevite and fluoborite.
• 1979. A third crystal is found in a parcel at the Gemological Institute of America.
• 2001 and 2002. The 11 g fourth crystal appears in Myanmar; in March 2002 Rossman buys two crystals in Namya, a ruby mine far from Mogok, the second known locality.
• 2004. Finds near Ongaing village multiply, with modest water rounding, a sign that the source rock is close by.
• 2005. The Goldschmidt conference reports the first 22 painites and a skarn origin; the source mine is located.
• 2007. The 1914 museum “tourmaline” is proven to be painite.
• 2013. Wet Loo is mined out.
• 2020. A Myanmar update reports Wet Loo and Thurein Taung as the main sources and large Namya mines closed.

The pattern matters to anyone exploring for a rare mineral: the breakthrough was not a new technology but identifying the host rock, a skarn at a marble and granite contact, and following the gem gravels uphill toward it.

Where is painite found?

All sources agree on one country: Myanmar. The IGS states that painite occurs only there, and the type locality is Ongaing (also spelled Ohngaing), a village just north of Mogok. Gem-quality material has also come from Kyauk-Pyat-That in Mogok township and from Namyazeik (Namya) in Kachin State.

The main source rock is a skarn, a rock formed where hot, chemically active fluids from a granite react with a carbonate rock such as marble. Rossman’s team concluded in 2005 that painite forms in skarn, and the mine they then located worked a skarn between the Mogok Marble and the Kabaing Granite (Caltech). A locality sheet citing Themelis’s book on the Mogok mines says the skarn at Thurein-taung lies between marble and leucogranite, with painite often found with ruby (Gemdat).

Which Mogok mines produced it

• Ongaing / Sinhalite Mine. The first locality, worked for spinel and tourmaline, with painite in weathered soil near the marble and leucogranite contact (Caltech, December 2004 report).
• Wet Loo. A skarn mine that supplied many crystals from mid-2005. By 2013 it was mined out and had become a deep creek bed.
• Thurein Taung. The second main locality, with Wet Loo, in a December 2020 update from Myanmar; smaller amounts came from Baw Lone Gyi.
• Namya (Kachin State). Crystals are paler pink than Mogok material. The December 2020 update says large mines there were closed and only informal mining continued.

That update also says few gem-quality painites reached the Myanmar market, that older stones from the mid-2000s had sold at high prices in the previous five years, and that Mogok mining was informal and aimed at ruby, sapphire and spinel.

▶ Remote sensing for mining explained in three minutes: what satellites measure on the ground. · 2:01

How painite is told apart from ruby and garnet

Painite looks like ruby, garnet or spinel at a glance, and its specific gravity overlaps ruby’s. The IGS says that is why some cut painites were taken for rubies or garnets. A gemologist separates them with refractive index (painite 1.787 to 1.816, against 1.76 to 1.77 for ruby, per Gem Rock Auctions), birefringence and the absorption spectrum. The IGS also reports no known synthetic painite and no known gem treatments.

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Specific gravity of painite, ruby and spinel

range of density relative to water

Density is the first test a buyer or field geologist might run, so the chart compares the three ranges.

Painite mining: small, informal and hard to scale

No company runs a large painite mine. Painite comes out of the same small and informal workings that produce ruby, spinel and sapphire at Mogok. The crystals sit in a thin skarn zone, are mixed with ruby and many other minerals, and are usually cracked. A working can give a handful of specimens and then be exhausted, as Wet Loo was by 2013. No public output statistic exists for painite alone, so this page gives none.

Anyone thinking about supply should note Myanmar’s gem control. The US Treasury states that Myanma Gems Enterprise, a state-owned body, handles permitting, licensing, royalties and marketing for all gemstones in Burma, and in April 2021 it was designated under US sanctions. Our painite price guide covers what that means for US buyers.

Five checks before buying or valuing a painite

Because the market is small and the stones resemble ruby and garnet, a buyer needs paperwork and a laboratory report more than usual. These steps are general good practice rather than rules from any one source.

1. Ask for a gemological report. The IGS notes that painite overlaps with ruby, almandine and spessartite in colour and density, so only refractive index, birefringence and spectrum separate them.
2. Check the weight and cut. The IGS reports that most rough is included and fractured, so faceted stones are small. A large clean red stone sold as painite deserves extra scrutiny.
3. Ask where it came from. The IGS names Myanmar as the sole source. Ask for the mine area (Mogok or Namya) and the date it left the country.
4. Check sanctions rules. Myanma Gems Enterprise was designated by OFAC on 8 April 2021, and US persons must follow OFAC guidance. Get advice from a lawyer before any purchase linked to it.
5. Compare the price with a rate card. Use a dated figure such as the faceted range above, not an unsourced “per kilogram” quote.

What is a painite worth, and how to convert a quote

Painite does not trade on an exchange. The price depends on size, colour and clarity. The Conversation (Andrew Christy, 1 August 2018) reports that tiny crystals sell for tens of dollars, poor cut stones for about A$100 and gem-quality stones for US$60,000 per carat. Gem Rock Auctions lists faceted stones from about US$800 to US$6,000 per carat (retrieved 26 October 2026).

Dealers quote in carats, but readers also ask for a price per gram or per kilogram. A carat is 0.2 g, so a per-carat price times five gives a per-gram price. The calculator below also shows how much of a rough crystal remains after cutting.

Can satellites find painite?

Not directly. A satellite sees reflected light from the ground surface, in pixels many metres across. Painite crystals are millimetres to centimetres long and sit inside a skarn, so no satellite sensor can pick out the mineral itself, and Farmonaut does not claim to. Painite is not on the list of minerals that Farmonaut’s detection reports cover.

What satellite imagery can show is the setting: marble belts, granite contacts, iron-stained weathered ground and clay alteration, plus river terraces where gem gravels collect. Such maps help a consultant or licence holder pick where to send field crews first. The painite itself is confirmed only by sampling and laboratory tests.

For licence areas in other minerals, satellite-based mineral detection screens an area before fieldwork starts, and you can ask for a quote for your own boundary.

▶ The limits of satellite mineral exploration, and why they matter for due diligence. · 2:08

Frequently asked questions about painite

Is painite the rarest mineral in the world?

No longer. Live Science ranks kyawthuite as rarer and painite second. Painite now counts in the thousands of pieces, but few are gem quality.

Why is painite so expensive?

Very few clean, cuttable stones exist, and they come from a single country. Top stones were reported at US$60,000 per carat in 2018, while rough pieces cost far less.

What colour is painite?

Dark red to brownish orange from Mogok, and paler pink from Namya. Vanadium and chromium cause the colour.

Is painite a precious stone?

Trade custom keeps the label “precious” for diamond, ruby, sapphire and emerald. The Conversation notes that this split reflects what was seen as rare in classical times, and that painite is far rarer than diamond.

Can painite be made in a laboratory?

The IGS reports no known synthetic painite.

Is painite mined for boron or zirconium?

No. Industrial boron and zirconium come from other minerals in much larger deposits, and painite is worth far more as a gem.

How hard is painite?

Painite has a Mohs hardness of 8 (IGS), softer than ruby at 9 and close to spinel, so it resists scratching but can chip at fractures.

Who discovered painite?

Arthur Pain, a British gem dealer, noticed the first crystal in Myanmar and gave it to the British Museum in 1952. It was described as a new mineral in 1957 and named for him.

How much is painite per gram?

Multiply a per-carat price by five. A faceted stone at US$3,000 per carat is US$15,000 per gram, and a top stone at US$60,000 per carat is US$300,000 per gram.