Painamite!
Painite is a very rare borate mineral.
It was first found in Myanmar by British mineralogist and gem dealer Arthur C.D. Pain in the 1950s.
When it was confirmed as a new mineral species, the mineral was named after him.
The chemical makeup of painite contains calcium, zirconium, boron, aluminium and oxygen (CaZrAl9O15(BO3)). The mineral also contains trace amounts of chromium and vanadium. Painite has an orange-red to brownish-red color similar to topaz due to trace amounts of iron. The crystals are naturally hexagonal in shape.
during the late 20th to mid 21st century painite was considered the rarest gem known to man and it wasn't until ancient Earth started to spread into space that painite was found in any great quantity.
Painite can be found mainly in asteroid belts and ring systems containing high metallic levels, usually around hot type 5 jovians or cooler none sequence stars where the extreme temperatures provides the ideal conditions for this minerals formation.
more recently, painite has become big fashion in LP 339-7 with many people bedecking themselves in cascading necklaces, studded with cut painite gems, or sporting the now wildly popular red painite tinted sun glasses.
SE Mining have been capitalizing on this, bringing hundreds of tons of painite from their current home in the col 14 system. Some say that this crazily expensive fashion trend was engineered by Starship Enterprises corporate strategists. SE Corp have denied the allegations. It seems to many to be very much a 'chicken and egg' situation. Regardless of who originally spawned it all off, Painite has become 339s most traded commodity.
Dr. Lewis Chapman, when asked about the recent success of SE Mining, had this to say:
"Col 14 has indeed become an important system to us and we have some plans in the works to possibly upgrade our operation there. For now though we will continue on as normal, I'm really proud of the boys out there supplying the tints for our sunglasses. Commander StalkerMac has recently taken over as our new head of department and he is doing a great job keeping everyone in line. which can be a hard job way out there in lawless nowhere!"
