We've all probably seen the movie Superman and seen that this invincible hero can only be stopped by a kryptonite fictional mineral from the planet of the same name. And our knowledge about that ended there.

In order to better understand the discovery of this new mineral, we must go back to the distant, distant past almost 20 million years ago, when according to some research the soil of today's Serbia was covered with volcanoes and lakes, which makes it ideal for finding various minerals.

In the mid-1990s, a team of scientists from the Faculty of Mining and Geology started research on the territory of the entire now former Yugoslav country and shared their knowledge, primarily about lithium and borate, in world journals dealing with scientific papers. But nothing significant happened.

Until 2004, when many world media reported that a team of scientists had found a mineral in the Jadar River Valley in Serbia that was similar in composition to kryptonite.

This mineral was named Jadarite precisely because it was found in the valley of the river Jadar, where a team of scientists, looking for borate, stumbled upon a then unknown mineral.

Jadarite really corresponds to fictitious Kryptonite in most chemical properties, the only difference is that it is white in color and does not contain flour in itself, but if we expose it to ultraviolet light, it becomes fluorescent.

Some estimates say that there are about 135 million tons of it in Serbia, it is unique in that it can be ore and lithium and boron.

This deposit can meet over 20 percent of the world demand for lithium batteries, electric vehicles and is very important even in the rocket industry.

As far as wrinkles are concerned, the application is also great both in pharmaceutical and, say, in the production of ceramics.

What makes Jadarit unique is that I get a third to express myself as a product, and that is sodium sulfate, which has a great application in household chemicals.

I don't know if Jadarit would be able to beat Superman, but his discovery is certainly very important because it is the only mineral on planet Earth.