gsminmag Mineralogical Magazine Mineralogical Magazine 0026-461X Mineralogical Society 10.1180/minmag.1986.050.356.09 Mineralogy New Data on Painite Shigley James E. Research Department, Gemological Institute of America, 1660 Stewart Street, Santa Monica, California 90404 Kampf Anthony R. Mineralogy Section, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90007 Rossman George R. Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA 6 1986 50 356 267 270 31 7 1985 Copyright © 1986, The Mineralogical Society 1986 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