Painite with Corundum var. Ruby

Unknown Owner

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Scores of pink-red Ruby crystals cover much of an underlying, large Painite crystal from the Wet-loo mines of Myanmar (Burma). The nearly concealed, two inch, prismatic Painite crystal reveals some of itself on the backside where the partially etched, brownish Painite is partially covered by a sugary coating of microcrystals of an unidentified mineral. Much of the remainder of the Painite crystal is adorned with 1 to 5 mm, pink-red Ruby crystals. The Rubies fluoresce a bright red in long wave UV. Painite is a rare and complex calcium zirconium aluminum borate-oxide and this piece was part of the big, and never-repeated, discoveries in contact metamorphic dirty marbles in the region in 2005. From the personal collection of Bill larson, who brought most of this miraculous find out to the West.