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I'm no mineral expert but there's enough info in the TFA to suspect it's rare because no one is mining it or even looking for it. Apparently, it's very difficul
by mrandish 2y ago
I'm no mineral expert but there's enough info in the TFA to suspect it's rare because no one is mining it or even looking for it. Apparently, it's very difficult to recognize in its natural form and easy to mistake for other less valuable minerals without lab testing.
It's just hard for me to imagine the natural processes that formed this grain of it didn't form a lot more of it in the region where it was found.
- ocdtrekkie 2y agoI would have to imagine if they find it particularly interesting it will be justified to go look for more, so it probably will not be the rarest gem for long.
- Rastonbury 2y agoThe place where it was found was also where the find most of the now 2nd rarest gem Painite, supposed there are only 300 specimens found. So I'm sure miners and scientists are hunting there, especially since these gems goes for prices similar that of diamonds
- facialwipe 2y agoAccording to Warren Buffet, all of the world’s mined gold would only form a 67 sq ft cube.
- rich_sasha 2y agoI think not quite; below link says a cube 22x22x22 m, which is about 67ft. But thats length side. Actual volume is just over 300k cubic feet, or in real units, 10,000 cubic meters. https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/how-much-gold https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/how-much-gold
- amelius 2y agoOr about 4.26 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
- aurizon 2y agoAh, a true answer to gold theft - esp snatch/grab, but there would be filers galore...
- bee_rider 2y agoI would expect a cube to be measured in cubic feet rather than square feet.
- lproven 2y agoThat was exactly what I thought. Comparison: "I sold my car. I got a good price -- 50kg of money!" I mean, it may be true but it's an odd way of describing it.
- facialwipe 2y agoIt was a simple mistake. I typed “sq” instead of “cu” in bed after I woke up and fapped.
- jnurmine 2y agoAlso not a mineral expert -- I didn't really understand anything from Wikipedia's description, "monoclinic with space group I2/c, and is isostructural with...". But since it's naturally occuring, perhaps even existing bismuth mines elsewhere have more of these rare grains, if one knows how to look for them.
- gus_massa 2y agoThe atoms in crystasl are organized in small repeated "cells". Monoclinic means that each cell has the shape of a small slanted brick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoclinic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoclinic . Isostructural means that other minerals have the atoms in the same arrangement. Space group I2/c is more detailed info about where the atoms are in the small cells/slanted brick. I have no idea what it exactly means. It's a name very specific to cristalographers, sometimes the same group has a different name in math or phisics, and sometimes nobody has a similar problem to be interested in that group. You can try to take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystallographic_point_group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystallographic_point_group Aparently there are 6 (six!) naming conventions, but I can't find I2/c to save my life. And Google didn't help either. (I'd glad if anyone can give more info.)
- gilleain 2y agoSo a physics stack exchange question (https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/221440/space-group-setting-of-a-crystal-structure https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/221440/space-gro...) led me to a paper (https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/jres/107/4/j74mig.pdf https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/jres/107/4/j74mig.pdf) that discusses the difference between C-centered (base-centered) cells and I-centered (body centered cells). Long story short, I think I2/c is conventionally C2/c - https://www.globalsino.com/EM/page1891.html https://www.globalsino.com/EM/page1891.html
- jnurmine 2y agoThis was very helpful, thanks! It's often the very domain-specific language that hides (at least on the surface) rather simple concepts. I do appreciate how confusing software engineering terminology must seem to outsiders... zombies, chicken bits, duck typing, core affinity, etc.