Mineralogy is an active science in which minerals are discovered or recognised on a regular basis. Use of old mineral names is also discontinued, for example when a name is no longer considered valid. Therefore, a list of recognised mineral species is never complete.
Minerals are distinguished by various chemical and physical properties. Differences in chemical composition and crystal structure distinguish the various species. Within a mineral species there may be variation in physical properties or minor amounts of impurities that are recognized by mineralogists or wider society as a mineral variety.
The International Mineralogical Association (IMA) is the international scientific group that recognises new minerals and new mineral names. However, minerals discovered before 1959 did not go through the official naming procedure. Some minerals published previously have been either confirmed or discredited since that date. This list contains a mixture of mineral names that have been approved since 1959 and those mineral names believed to still refer to valid mineral species (these are called "grandfathered" species). Presently, each year about 90–110 new mineral species (the sum of all mutations c. 120 per year) are officially approved by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification (CNMNC) of the International Mineralogical Association. [1]
As of November 2024 [update] , the IMA - CNMNC List of Minerals lists 6,100 valid minerals, including 1,153 pre-IMA minerals (grandfathered), and 97 questionable minerals. [2] Also as of November 2024 [update] , the Mineralogical Society of America's Handbook of Mineralogy lists 5,663 species, [3] and the IMA Database of Mineral Properties/RRUFF Project lists 6,006 valid species (IMA/CNMNC) of a total of 6,237 minerals. [4] The IMA/RRUFF database includes 1,164 pre-IMA minerals. [4]
Due to the length of this list, it is divided into alphabetical groups. The minerals are sorted by name.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Zoisite, first known as saualpite, after its type locality, is a calcium aluminum hydroxy sorosilicate belonging to the epidote group of minerals. Its chemical formula is Ca2Al3(SiO4)(Si2O7)O(OH).
Torbernite, also known as chalcolite, is a relatively common mineral with the chemical formula Cu[(UO2)(PO4)]2(H2O)12. It is a radioactive, hydrated green copper uranyl phosphate, found in granites and other uranium-bearing deposits as a secondary mineral. The chemical formula of torbernite is similar to that of autunite in which a Cu2+ cation replaces a Ca2+ cation. Torbernite tends to dehydrate to metatorbernite with the sum formula Cu[(UO2)(PO4)]2(H2O)8.
Adamite is a zinc arsenate hydroxide mineral, Zn2AsO4OH. It is a mineral that typically occurs in the oxidized or weathered zone above zinc ore occurrences. Pure adamite is colorless, but usually it possess yellow color due to Fe compounds admixture. Tints of green also occur and are connected with copper substitutions in the mineral structure. Olivenite is a copper arsenate that is isostructural with adamite and there is considerable substitution between zinc and copper resulting in an intermediate called cuproadamite. Zincolivenite is a recently discovered mineral being an intermediate mineral with formula CuZn(AsO4)(OH). Manganese, cobalt, and nickel also substitute in the structure. An analogous zinc phosphate, tarbuttite, is known.
Danburite is a calcium boron silicate mineral with a chemical formula of CaB2(SiO4)2.
Braunite is a silicate mineral containing both di- and tri-valent manganese with the chemical formula: Mn2+Mn3+6[O8|SiO4]. Common impurities include iron, calcium, boron, barium, titanium, aluminium, and magnesium.
The Borate Minerals are minerals which contain a borate anion group. The borate (BO3) units may be polymerised similar to the SiO4 unit of the silicate mineral class. This results in B2O5, B3O6, B2O4 anions as well as more complex structures which include hydroxide or halogen anions. The [B(O,OH)4]− anion exists as well.
Abenakiite-(Ce) is a mineral of sodium, cerium, neodymium, lanthanum, praseodymium, thorium, samarium, oxygen, sulfur, carbon, phosphorus, and silicon with a chemical formula Na26Ce6(SiO3)6(PO4)6(CO3)6(S4+O2)O. The silicate groups may be given as the cyclic Si6O18 grouping. The mineral is named after the Abenaki, an Algonquian Indian tribe of New England. Its Mohs scale rating is 4 to 5.
Hafnon is a hafnium nesosilicate mineral, chemical formula (Hf,Zr)SiO4 or (Hf,Zr,Th,U,Y)SiO4. In natural zircon ZrSiO4 part of the zirconium is replaced by the very similar hafnium and so natural zircon is never pure ZrSiO4. A zircon with 100% hafnium substitution can be made synthetically and is hafnon.
Nickel–Strunz classification is a scheme for categorizing minerals based upon their chemical composition, introduced by German mineralogist Karl Hugo Strunz in his Mineralogische Tabellen (1941). The 4th and the 5th edition was also edited by Christel Tennyson (1966). It was followed by A.S. Povarennykh with a modified classification.
Hodgkinsonite is a rare zinc manganese silicate mineral Zn2MnSiO4(OH)2. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system and typically forms radiating to acicular prismatic crystals with variable color from pink, yellow-red to deep red. Hodgkinsonite was discovered in 1913 by H. H. Hodgkinson, for whom it is named in Franklin, New Jersey, and it is only found in that area.
Danalite is an iron beryllium silicate sulfide mineral with formula: Fe2+4Be3(SiO4)3S.
Népouite is a rare nickel silicate mineral which has the apple green color typical of such compounds. It was named by the French mining engineer Edouard Glasser in 1907 after the place where it was first described, the Népoui Mine, Népoui, Poya Commune, North Province, New Caledonia. The ideal formula is Ni3(Si2O5)(OH)4, but most specimens contain some magnesium, and (Ni,Mg)3(Si2O5)(OH)4 is more realistic. There is a similar mineral called lizardite in which all of the nickel is replaced by magnesium, formula Mg3(Si2O5)(OH)4. These two minerals form a series; intermediate compositions are possible, with varying proportions of nickel to magnesium.
Bustamite is a calcium manganese inosilicate (chain silicate) and a member of the wollastonite group. Magnesium, zinc and iron are common impurities substituting for manganese. Bustamite is the high-temperature polymorph of CaMnSi2O6 and johannsenite is the low temperature polymorph. The inversion takes place at 830 °C (1,530 °F), but may be very slow.
Bustamite could be confused with light-colored rhodonite or pyroxmangite, but both these minerals are biaxial (+) whereas bustamite is biaxial (−).
Stillwellite-(Ce) is a rare-earth boro-silicate mineral with chemical formula (Ce,La,Ca)BSiO5.
Plancheite is a hydrated copper silicate mineral with the formula Cu8Si8O22(OH)4•(H2O). It is closely related to shattuckite in structure and appearance, and the two minerals are often confused.
Kanoite is a light pinkish brown silicate mineral that is found in metamorphic rocks. It is an inosilicate and has a chemical formula of (Mg,Mn2+)2Si2O6. It is a member of pyroxene group and clinopyroxene subgroup.
Fluorellestadite is a rare nesosilicate of calcium, with sulfate and fluorine, with the chemical formula Ca10(SiO4)3(SO4)3F2. It is a member of the apatite group, and forms a series with hydroxylellestadite.
Daubréelite is a rare sulfide mineral. It crystallizes with cubic symmetry and has chemical composition of Fe2+Cr3+2S4. It usually occurs as black platy aggregates.
Georgius Agricola is considered the 'father of mineralogy'. Nicolas Steno founded the stratigraphy, the geology characterizes the rocks in each layer and the mineralogy characterizes the minerals in each rock. The chemical elements were discovered in identified minerals and with the help of the identified elements the mineral crystal structure could be described. One milestone was the discovery of the geometrical law of crystallization by René Just Haüy, a further development of the work by Nicolas Steno and Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle. Important contributions came from some Saxon "Bergraths"/ Freiberg Mining Academy: Johann F. Henckel, Abraham Gottlob Werner and his students. Other milestones were the notion that metals are elements too and the periodic table of the elements by Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev. The overview of the organic bonds by Kekulé was necessary to understand the silicates, first refinements described by Bragg and Machatschki; and it was only possibly to understand a crystal structure with Dalton's atomic theory, the notion of atomic orbital and Goldschmidt's explanations. Specific gravity, streak and X-ray powder diffraction are quite specific for a Nickel-Strunz identifier. Nowadays, non-destructive electron microprobe analysis is used to get the empirical formula of a mineral. Finally, the International Zeolite Association (IZA) took care of the zeolite frameworks.
Uramphite is a rarely-found phosphate mineral in the "phosphate, arsenate and vanadate" mineral class with chemical composition (NH4)2[UO2PO4]2·6H2O from which it is seen to be a hydrated ammonium uranyl phosphate.
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