Povondraite was discovered in 1976 at the San Francisco mine near Villa Tunari, Bolivia. Originally it was called ferridravite, for the composition and the assumed relationship to dravite, i.e., "ferric dravite". However, later investigations yielded a new empiric formula which had no relation to the dravite. This called for renaming, and the new name, after Pavel Povondra, a mineralogist at the Charles University of Prague, was approved in 1996 by the International Mineralogical Association. It is a new and rare tourmaline species, black, which at first look is no different from the other black tourmalines, such as schorl, which is why collectors tend to acquire specimens of this variety from reputable merchants only, to have some garanty about its authenticity.