Structure and composition of natural carbonaceous shungite

A 2013 paper covering the mineralogical and chemical structure of natural fullerene-containing shungite. Useful as a reference for what the material actually is, before the wellness layer.

Sources: via oraphimshungite.com · original paper International Journal of Advanced Scientific and Technical Research, Vol. 6 Issue 3 (Nov-Dec 2013) .

Edited 2026-05-03, source audit. Cited sources verified to exist; no fabricated sources detected. Where the audit could directly read the source (live English-language papers, open Russian academic articles), claims were compared against the source content and corrections applied above. Where sources were paywalled or geo-blocked at audit time, bibliographic plausibility was verified via parallel routes (publisher index pages, PubMed/PMC mirrors, cross-citations) but the source content itself was not always directly read. If a specific claim matters to you, click the source link and verify it yourself.

A 2014 composition study from Tula State University adds a specific detail worth noting: the trace-element fingerprint of Zaonezhye shungite, and a comment on where the fullerenes may come from.

By mass the sample was 66.14% mineral matter, with the ash running SiO₂ 47.6%, Fe₂O₃ 15.0%, CaO 4.6%. The trace metals (µg/g): aluminium 23,824, iron 17,231, potassium 9,957, sulphur 8,400.

The detail that's easy to miss: the paper flags uranium (8.2 µg/g) and thorium (2.4 µg/g) as part of what may have driven natural fullerene synthesis in the rock - a radiogenic energy source acting over geological time. It pairs with the sulphur-role thread elsewhere on the forum: two different natural ingredients, both proposed as part of why this particular deposit grew fullerenes when most carbon-rich rocks didn't.

Source

- Gorokhova M.N., Lebedev K.S., Platonov V.V. (2014), "Особенности химического состава шунгита Карельского Заонежья", Известия ТулГУ. Естественные науки: cyberleninka.ru