Minerals are solid substances with specific crystalline structures found naturally. Minerals also possess specific physical characteristics like cleavage and symmetry that set them apart from other solid substances.
Minerals include metals such as iron (found in cars and buildings), copper, lithium and aluminium; as well as industrial minerals like salt, silica sand, graphite and talc.
Physical Properties
Minerals are naturally occurring inorganic solids with specific chemical composition and crystalline structure (the regular geometric arrangement of atoms within a crystal). Furthermore, minerals exhibit physical characteristics like color, streaking, hardness, luster and cleavage that allow identification from hand samples or field specimens.
Color is easily the most easily identifiable property of a mineral, yet often isn’t diagnostic of impurities within it. Mineralogists rely heavily on physical characteristics like streak to identify samples.
Luster refers to how the surface of a mineral shines and can be described by standard adjectives such as metallic, pearly, silky or greasy. Minerals with flat surfaces that exhibit one or more directions of cleavage can easily be identified by their luster and streak; other physical properties that help in its identification include reaction with acid or magnetism.
Chemical Properties
Minerals can be identified based on their size and shape as well as physical characteristics such as other physical features. Mineralogists often utilize chemical characteristics to differentiate among minerals.
Size and shape can be determined by using laboratory equipment or looking at samples under a microscope, though another way is through their cleavage surface(s), which breaks apart into pieces as it forms its crystal structure. Cleavage depends on weak bonding patterns within minerals’ crystal structures, with their directions providing valuable hints to how atoms are organized within each mineral’s crystal structure.
Chemical composition of minerals refers to their ratio of elements or groups of elements present within it, usually expressed as its chemical formula. Each mineral has a distinctive chemical formula. Some are isotropic – looking the same from any angle – while others exhibit anisotropy, where their appearance varies when seen from various viewpoints.
Economical Uses
Minerals are integral components in numerous industries. From touch screen indium, crop fertilizer phosphates and potassium applications and jewelry design use all the way to glass manufacturing and concrete use; minerals play an indispensable part of everyday life.
Industrial minerals are valued for their physical and chemical properties rather than for their commodity exchange market value, with mining and processing contributing to economic development at national, state, and local levels.
No country can produce all of the minerals it needs for proper functioning and thus an increased percentage of our mineral consumption is imported from overseas. Many critical minerals used for technology ranging from smartphones and jetfighters have production concentration in just a few countries which makes us dependent on stable supplies of those minerals. Substitution, increased domestic production, efficient demand reduction through efficiency gains as well as reuse/recycling may all provide ways of decreasing our dependence on critical mineral supplies.
Origins
Minerals form in rocks either by weathering preexisting minerals, or chemical precipitation from solutions. Sometimes their formation can be hastened through intense heat and pressure – a process known as metamorphism.
Minerals are natural solid substances with a distinct crystalline structure, though their crystal forms do not all share identical traits. Minerals with similar atomic composition but distinct crystal structures – like quartz and stishovite (two minerals more commonly referred to as jade) – are classified as distinct species. Sometimes color may help distinguish different minerals; pseudochromatic minerals such as azurite and malachite provide one example.
Minerals play an integral part in how our planet functions. Metals such as iron (in the form of steel) and copper are essential in creating vehicles and buildings; aluminium cans are widely used for aircraft transportation and drinks cans; precious metals like gold are prized pieces of jewellery. Meanwhile construction minerals such as sand, gravel, clay and crushed rock are employed in road building, brick making and concrete production while industrial minerals like salt graphite clays may be utilized to manufacture chemicals, glassware or fertilisers.
