It is often found as dipyramidal, curved or corroded crystals no more than 0.15 mm in size.

Both khinite and parakhinite were first identified in 1978 in the Old Guard Mine (Royal Guard Mine), Tombstone District, Cochise County, Arizona, US They were named after Ba-Saw Khin, a Burmese-American mineralogist.

[2] They are often found together with tenorite, quetzalcoatlite, quartz, gold, dugganite, chrysocolla, chlorargyrite, bromargyrite, xocomecatlite, and tlapallite.

[2][5] Khinite and parakhinite are found in multiple mines across Mexico and the USA.

They do differ in optical properties: Khinite is biaxial (+), while parakhinite is uniaxial (−).