We Have All heard Of Precious Gems,

diamond, ruby, sapphire, emerald, but I have never heard of the rarest of them all,

it is kyawthuite, photographs Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, named after Dr. Kyaw Thu, a Burmese mineralogist-petrologist-gemmologist, Kyawthuite is a transparent reddish-orange mineral of which only a single, tiny sample exists – an 0.3-gram gem – making it the rarest mineral in the world, there are around 6,000 minerals recognized by the International Mineralogical Association, and while many of them are classified as ‘rare’, none of them rival kyawthuite in terms of rarity, named after Dr. Kyaw Thu, a Burmese mineralogist-petrologist-gemmologist, this incredibly rare mineral was discovered in the bed of a stream in Myanmar’s Mogok region by sapphire hunters and recognized by the International Mineralogical Society in 2015, the only sample ever discovered weighs just 1.61 carats (0.3 grams),

 Caltech's mineral database describes it as a small (1.61-karat) deep orange gemstone that the International Mineralogical Association officially recognized in 2015, “This is the first in the world. It is not found in other countries,” U Kyaw Thu told The Myanmar Times, the precious stone was originally found by gems prospectors in Chaung Gyi village, Mogok township – Myanmar’s famed “Ruby Land” – part of Mandalay Region. Not realising its uniqueness, the finders set the raw stone out for sale at a market, where U Kyaw Thu saw it and discerned something special, “From studying in the field and buying stones from the Khanae market, [I could tell that] this stone was a little strange and I bought it. Then, when I reached Yangon, I examined it [and determined that] this was not like any other gem we’ve ever found,” U Kyaw Thu said, although he purchased the stone in 2010, confirming its rarity was difficult in Myanmar, so he cooperated with experts from the United States and the International Mineralogical Association. In December 2015, the latter recognized it as the first ever discovered in the world, he said, so how much is the rarest of the world’s gems worth? The stone is currently being exhibited at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in the United States. The museum’s bi-monthly magazine early this year boasted of having added “the world’s rarest gem to its collection”, and as such I guess it is priceless, for the full story have a look here.