The Kernowite-the dark green mineral has been added to the list of the minerals. The International Mineralogical Association has approved it as a new mineral.
- The only known specimen of kernowite was discovered in the 1700s.
- It has been named after Kernow which is the Cornish word for Cornwall, UK.
- A team led by Natural History Museum (NHM) mineralogist Mike Rumsey made the discovery while studying a rock taken from Wheal Gorland mine in St Day.
- It became part of the Natural History Museum, London’s geological collections in 1964.
- Earlier, mineralogists believed the green crystals to be a variation of another mineral, liroconite, but more researches confirm that it is a new type of mineral.
- Cornwall is a Unesco world heritage site and is known globally for the discovery of minerals.
- Kernowite is a secondary mineral as it is formed when other rocks, close to the surface of the Earth have had their chemical elements mobilized by circulating water.
(Source: BBC and SCI-News)
