The Kola Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences has denied information about the alleged discovery of a new mineral

The Kola Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (KSC RAS) has denied information spread in the media about the discovery of a new ultra-expensive mineral. About this on August 2nd the press service of the center reported.

"This is a misunderstanding. The journalists took from our release, which was given to them by the press service of the Ministry of Education and Science, what was not there. The material was about deciphering the structure of a long-known mineral. And about this interesting structure. There was not a word about the cost or the discovery of a new mineral," representatives of the scientific center told TASS.

The KSC explained that the original press release from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation was solely about studying the internal structure of a long-known secondary mineral called Kola ashcroftin, discovered at the Kirovsky mine in Khibiny.

This substance forms the thinnest needle-like crystals up to 0.2 mm long and has unique hollow silicate tubes with a diameter of about two nanometers. The scientists emphasized that the market value of the finds is unknown, but a detailed description of their structure will allow specialists to synthesize artificial analogues for highly efficient catalysis of chemical reactions and the production of modern magnetic equipment.

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On August 1, the Ministry of Education and Science announced that a previously unknown mineral, named "Kola ashcroftin," had been discovered in the Kirovsky mine of the Khibiny massif. The mineral was found by researchers from the Kola Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg State University and the A.E. Fersman Mineralogical Museum. Classic ashcroftine is a pinkish-transparent and extremely rare silicate found in Greenland, Canada and Italy.