Middle Eastern precious stone exploration company Shefa Yamim on Monday announced that carmeltazite, a mineral found in one of its gemstones, the carmel sapphire, has been recognised and approved as a new mineral by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification.
The new mineral was named carmeltazite owing to its location of discovery on Mount Carmel and its major chemical components namely, titanium, aluminium and zirconium.
The mineral is part of the mineral assemblage found as tiny inclusions inside Shefa Yamim’s gemstone, the carmel sapphire.
As stated in a published article entitled ‘Carmeltazite, ZrAl2Ti4O11, a new mineral trapped in corundum from volcanic rocks of Mt Carmel’, the mineral and its name have been approved by the IMA under the number 2018-103.
The article was written by scientists from Macquarie University, the University of Western Australia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Università degli Studi di Milano and Shefa Yamim.
The carmel sapphire is a newly discovered type of corundum similar in appearance to the corundum, but not like any other sapphire found in the world.
The rough carmel sapphire is typically black, blue to green or orange-brown in colour.