New Data on Painite

James E. Shigley, Anthony R. Kampf and George R. Rossman
Research Department, Gemological Institute of America, 1660 Stewart Street, Santa Monica, California 90404
Mineralogy Section, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90007
Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA

Abstract: A crystal of painite discovered in 1979 in a parcel of rough gem spinel from Burma represents the third known crystal of the species. This crystal is similar to the type crystal in most respects. Chemical analyses of both the new crystal and the type crystal confirmed the essential constituents reported by Moore and Araki (1976) and showed in addition the presence of trace amounts of Fe, Cr, V, Ti, Na, and Hf. Optical absorption spectra suggest that the red colour of painite is caused principally by Cr3+ and V3+.

Keywords: painite • new data • colour • Mogok • Burma

Mineralogical Magazine; June 1986 v. 50; no. 356; p. 267-270; DOI: 10.1180/minmag.1986.050.356.09
© 1986, The Mineralogical Society
Mineralogical Society (www.minersoc.org)