Jan. 30, 2023 – Viral videos that have exploded across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok claim to show a new mineral that somehow holds a charge, with users demonstrating by rubbing them together and creating sparks, as well as connecting them with wires that then appear to power an LED. The rocks, detailed in an article on MITECHNEWS.com, were supposedly discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo and have garnered significant interest because such a rock would likely change batteries and power storage forever. As always, though, everything is not what it seems and experts have since said that such a mineral producing electricity, to our current knowledge, would be impossible. Minerals within rocks do not possess the required molecular makeup to store or release charge – the best they can do is simply pass it along. “We don’t know of any mechanism, thus far, that actually supports that kind of phenomenon,” said Yaoguo Li, a professor of geophysics at the Colorado School of Mines, in an AP fact check.