Nature gives man the opportunity to use 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 naturally and subsequently converted into the form necessary for a person.
The same goes for natural products such 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, we consider what types of minerals are and what these compounds are in general.
Minerals: general description
In the generally accepted sense in mineralogy, the term "mineral" is understood to mean a solid body consisting of chemical elements and possessing a number of individual physicochemical properties. In addition, it should be formed only in a natural way, under the influence of various 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 education:
- igneous;
- hydrothermal;
- sedimentary;
- metamorphogenic;
- biogenic.
Large aggregates of minerals collected in a single system are called rocks. Therefore, these two concepts should not be confused. Mountain minerals are mined precisely by crushing and processing whole pieces of rocks.
The chemical composition of the considered compounds can be different and contain a large number of different impurity substances. However, there is always one main thing that dominates the composition. Therefore, it is it that is determining, and impurities are not taken into account.
The structure of minerals
The structure of minerals is crystalline. There are several options for lattices with which it can be represented:
- cubic;
- hexagonal;
- rhombic;
- tetragonal;
- monoclinic;
- trigonal;
- triclinic.
These compounds are classified according to the chemical composition of the determining substance.
Types of minerals
The following classification can be given, which reflects the bulk of the composition of the mineral.
- 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.
- Halides , which include chlorides, fluorides, bromides. These are minerals, examples of which are known to everyone: rock salt (sodium chloride) or halite, sylvin, fluorite.
- Oxides and hydroxides. Formed by metal and non-metal oxides, that is, by combining them with oxygen. This group includes minerals whose names are chalcedony, corundum (ruby, sapphire), magnetite, quartz, hematite, rutile, cassematite and others.
- Nitrates . Examples: potassium and sodium nitrate.
- Borates : optical calcite, Yeremeevit.
- Carbonates are salts of carbonic acid. These are minerals whose names are as follows: malachite, aragonite, magnesite, limestone, chalk, marble and others.
- Sulphates : gypsum, barite, selenite.
- Tungstates, molybdates, chromates, vanadates, arsenates, phosphates - all these are salts of the corresponding acids, which form minerals of various structures. Names - nepheline, apatite and others.
- Silicates . Silicic acid salts having the SiO 4 group. Examples of such minerals are as follows: beryl, feldspar, topaz, pomegranates, kaolinite, talc, tourmaline, jadein, lapis lazuli and others.
In addition to the above groups, there are also organic compounds that form entire natural deposits. For example, peat, coal, urkit, oxolates of calcium, iron and others. As well as several carbides, silicides, phosphides, nitrides.
Native elements
These are minerals (photos can be seen below), which are formed by simple substances. For instance:
- gold in the form of sand and nuggets, ingots;
- diamond and graphite are allotropic modifications of the carbon lattice;
- copper;
- silver;
- iron;
- sulfur;
- group of platinum metals.
Often these substances are found in the form of large aggregations with other minerals, pieces of rock and ores. Mining and their use in industry are important to humans. They are the basis, raw materials for obtaining materials from which a variety of household items, structures, jewelry, appliances and so on are subsequently made.
Phosphates, arsenates, vanadates
This group includes rocks and minerals that are primarily of exogenous origin, that is, they are found in the outer layers of the earth's crust. Only phosphates form inside. There are actually quite a lot of salts of phosphoric, arsenic and vanadium acids. However, if we consider the overall picture, then in general their percentage in the cortex is small.
We can distinguish several of the most common crystals that belong to this group:
- apatite;
- vivianite;
- lindakerite;
- rosenite;
- carnotite;
- paskoit.
As already noted, these minerals form rocks of a rather impressive size.
Oxides and hydroxides
This group of minerals includes all oxides, both simple and complex, which are formed by metals, nonmetals, intermetallic compounds and transition elements. The total percentage of these substances in the earth's crust is 5%. The only exception that relates to silicates, and not to the group under consideration, is silicon oxide SiO 2 with all its varieties.
A huge number of examples of such minerals can be given, however, we denote the most common:
- Granite.
- Magnetite.
- Hematite.
- Ilmenite.
- Columbite
- Spinel.
- Lime.
- Gibbsit.
- Romaneschit.
- Holpertitis.
- Corundum (ruby, sapphire).
- Bauxite.
Carbonates
This class of minerals includes a fairly large variety of representatives, which are also of great practical importance to humans. So, the following subclasses or groups exist:
- calcite;
- dolomite;
- aragonite;
- malachite;
- soda minerals;
- bastnesitis.
Each subclass includes from several units to dozens of representatives. In total, there are about one hundred different mineral carbonates. The most common ones are:
- marble;
- limestone;
- malachite;
- apatite;
- siderite;
- smitsonite;
- magnesite;
- carbonatite and others.
Some are valued as a very common and important building material, others are used to create jewelry, and others are used in technology. However, all are important, and their extraction is very active.
Silicates
The most diverse group of minerals in external forms and number of representatives. This variation is due to the fact that the silicon atoms that underlie their chemical structure are able to combine into different types of structures, coordinating several oxygen atoms around themselves. So, the following types of structures can be formed:
These minerals, photos of which can be seen in the article, are known to everyone. At least some of them. After all, they include such as:
- topaz;
- Garnet;
- chrysoprase;
- rhinestone;
- opal;
- chalcedony and others.
They are used in jewelry, appreciated as durable structures for use in technology.
You can also give minerals as an example, the names of which are not so well known to ordinary people who are not related to mineralogy, but nevertheless they are very important in industry:
- Datonite.
- Olivin.
- Murmanite.
- Chrysokol.
- Eudialyte.
- Beryl.