Minerals: names. Types of minerals (photo)

Nature gives a person the opportunity to enjoy the benefits it produces. Therefore, people live quite comfortably and have everything they need. After all, water, salt, metals, fuel, electricity and much more - everything is created in a natural way and in the future will be transformed into the right form for man.

The same applies to such products of nature as minerals. These numerous diverse crystalline structures are an important raw material for a huge number of the most diverse industrial processes in the economic activities of people. Therefore, let us consider what kinds of minerals are and what these compounds are in general.

Minerals: general characteristics

In the generally accepted sense in mineralogy, the term "mineral" means a solid body consisting of chemical elements and possessing a number of individual physicochemical properties. In addition, it must be formed only in a natural way, under the influence of certain natural processes.

Minerals can be formed as simple substances (native), and complex. The ways of their formation are also different. There are such processes that contribute to their formation:

• Magmatic;
• Hydrothermal;
• Sedimentary;
• Metamorphogenic;
• Biogenic.

Large aggregates of minerals collected in unified systems are called rocks. Therefore, these two concepts should not be confused. Mountain minerals are extracted precisely by crushing and processing of whole pieces of rocks.

The chemical composition of the compounds in question can be different and contain a large number of different impurity substances. However, there is always one main thing that dominates the composition. That's why it is the determining one, and impurities are not taken into account.

Structure of minerals

The structure of minerals is crystalline. There are several variants of lattices, with which it can be represented:

• Cubic;
• Hexagonal;
• Rhombic;
• Tetragonal;
• Monoclinic;
• Trigonal;
• Triclinic.

Classify these compounds according to the chemical composition of the determining substance.

Types of minerals

One can cite the following classification, which reflects the bulk of the mineral composition.

1. Native or simple substances. These are also minerals. Examples are: gold, iron, carbon in the form of diamond, coal, anthracite, sulfur, silver, selenium, cobalt, copper, arsenic, bismuth and many others.
2. Halides , which include chlorides, fluorides, bromides. These are minerals, examples of which are known to everyone: rock salt (sodium chloride) or halite, sylvite, fluorite.
3. Oxides and hydroxides. They are formed by oxides of metals and non-metals, that is, by combining them with oxygen. This group includes minerals, the names of which are chalcedony, corundum (ruby, sapphire), magnetite, quartz, hematite, rutile, cassematite and others.
4. Nitrates . Examples: potassium and sodium nitrate.
5. Borates : optical calcite, emeryevite.
6. Carbonates are salts of carbonic acid. These are minerals, the names of which are the following: malachite, aragonite, magnesite, limestone, chalk, marble and others.
7. Sulphates : gypsum, barite, selenite.
8. Tungstates, molybdates, chromates, vanadates, arsenates, phosphates are all salts of the corresponding acids, which form minerals of different structures. The names are nepheline, apatite and others.
9. Silicates . Salts of silicic acid, which have a group of SiO ₄ . Examples of such minerals are: beryl, feldspar, topaz, garnets, kaolinite, talc, tourmaline, jadein, lapis lazuli and others.

In addition to the above-mentioned groups, there are also organic compounds forming whole natural deposits. For example, peat, coal, urkit, calcium oxalates, iron and others. And also several carbides, silicides, phosphides, nitrides.

Native elements

These are such minerals (the photo can be seen below), which are formed by simple substances. For example:

• Gold in the form of sand and nuggets, ingots;
• Diamond and graphite are allotropic modifications of the crystal lattice of carbon;
• copper;
• silver;
• iron;
• sulfur;
• Group of platinum metals.

Often these substances are found in the form of large aggregations with other minerals, pieces of rocks and ores. Extraction and their use in industry are important for humans. They are the basis, the raw material for the production of materials, from which they subsequently produce a variety of household items, designs, ornaments, appliances and so on.

Phosphates, arsenates, vanadates

This group includes rocks and minerals, which have a predominantly exogenous origin, that is, they occur in the outer layers of the earth's crust. Inside, only phosphates are formed. The salts of phosphorous, arsenic and vanadium acids are in fact quite a lot. However, if we consider the general picture, then the percentage of their content in the cortex is small.

One can distinguish several of the most common crystals that belong to this group:

• apatite;
• Vivianite;
• Lindakerite;
• Roenite;
• Carnotite;
• Paskoite.

As already noted, these minerals form rock formations of quite impressive size.

Oxides and hydroxides

This group of minerals includes all oxides, both simple and complex, which are formed by metals, nonmetals, intermetallides and transition elements. The total percentage of these substances in the earth's crust is 5%. The only exception that applies to silicates, and not to the group under consideration, is SiO2 silicon with all its varieties.

You can give a huge number of examples of such minerals, but we will denote the most common:

1. Granite.
2. Magnetite.
3. Hematite.
4. Ilmenite.
5. Columbite.
6. Spinel.
7. Lime.
8. Gibbsite.
9. Romanesheet.
10. Holfertit.
11. Corundum (ruby, sapphire).
12. Bauxite.

Carbonates

This class of minerals includes a fairly large variety of representatives, which are also of great practical importance for humans. So, there are the following subclasses or groups:

• calcite;
• dolomite;
• aragonite;
• malachite;
• Soda minerals;
• Bastnesite.

Each subclass includes in its composition from several units to dozens of representatives. In total, there are about a hundred different mineral carbonates. The most common of them are:

• marble;
• limestone;
• malachite;
• apatite;
• siderite;
• Smithsonite;
• Magnesite;
• Carbonatite and others.

Some are appreciated as a very common and important building material, others are used to create jewelry, others are used in engineering. However, all are important, and their extraction is very active.

Silicates

The most diverse group of minerals according to external forms and numbers of representatives. This variation is due to the fact that the silicon atoms underlying their chemical structure are able to combine into different types of structures, coordinating several oxygen atoms around themselves. Thus, the following types of structures can be formed:

• Island;
• Chain;
• Tape;
• Leaf.

These minerals, photos of which can be seen in the article, are known to everyone. At least some of them. After all, they are such as:

• topaz;
• Garnet;
• chrysoprase;
• rhinestone;
• opal;
• Chalcedony and others.

They are used in jewelry business, they are appreciated as strong constructions for use in engineering.

You can also give examples of minerals whose names are not so well known to ordinary people who are not related to mineralogy, but nevertheless they are very important in the industry:

1. Datonite.
2. Olivin.
3. Murmanite.
4. Chrysocola.
5. Eudialyte.
6. Beryl.