Minerals are naturally occurring inorganic substances that have a definite chemical composition and crystal structure. There are over 4,000 known mineral types on Earth. Minerals form through various geological processes, such as cooling of magma or lava, crystallization of solutions, and chemical reactions within rocks. They make up the Earth's crust and are the building blocks of rocks. Many minerals are economically important as sources of metal ores and other raw materials that are necessary for modern civilization.

1. MINERALS

4. Arrange the jumbled letters to find the
appropriate criteria to determine whether a
material is classified as a mineral or not.
1. N A L T L A U R Y N G O I R U C C
___________________________
- It is a product of Earth’s natural processes.
2. C A N I I R O G N
___________________________-
It must be product of Earth’s physical processes.
3. S O U E N E G O M O H D I L O S
___________________________
- have definite shape and volume.

5. 4. E N I L L A T S Y R C E S R T R U C U T
__________________________
- atoms are arranged in order of increasing
pattern.
5. L C M C E H A I N O I T O C M O P S I
__________________________
- represented by chemical formula

6. • We are using these products made from
minerals daily.
• Graphite is the mineral used in wooden
pencil.
• Halite is the mineral found in salt.
• Your cellphone is made up of different
minerals.
• The cars that we drive, the roads that we
travel, the building that we live in, are some
examples of products derived from minerals.

7. MINERALS
naturally occurring,
inorganic elements or
compounds with specific
physical and chemical
properties.

8. MINERALS
There are more than
4000 different types of
minerals on Earth
alone.
Each mineral has
unique physical
properties which
distinguish it from
other minerals

9. The Earth’s crust is made up of two
things:
•Minerals and Rocks
Coal
Scoria
Gneiss
***You should see lots of different
minerals in every single rock
Minerals are
individual crystals
of all the same stuff
Rocks are
combinations
of minerals

10. Mineral Formation
In 2008, crystals up to 39 feet long were found in a cave in Mexico at a depth of
1000 feet. The cave is extremely hot, with air temperatures reaching 136 °F with
90 to 99 % humidity. The cave is relatively unexplored due to these conditions.
Without proper protection, people can only endure about ten minutes of exposure
at a time. See the suits

11. What is a mineral?
Main Concept: Minerals are the
building blocks of rocks!
There are five main criteria for
something to be a mineral:
a) It must be solid
b) It must occur naturally (not man-made)
c) It is made of non-living material (inorganic)
d) It has a definite chemical formula (NaCl=salt)
e) It has a crystal structure (Precious?)

12. Mineral Characteristics
• Naturally occurring – formed by natural
processes
• Inorganic – not alive; does not come from
anything living
• Solid, crystalline structure – atoms
arranged in in a regular geometric pattern
• Specific composition – unique chemical
formula (can bean element or compound)

13. Examples:
• Amethyst Calcite Garnet
• Galena Gold Pyrite

14. Where do minerals come from?
 Mineral crystals can form in two main ways:
From stuff
dissolved in liquids
(Evaporation & Hot Water)
From Cooling
molten material

15. “Intrusive” Cooling:
Magma cools slowly
(Long Time = Large Crystals)
“Extrusive” Cooling:
Lava cools Fast
(Short Time = Small Crystals)
Minerals & Crystals from
Magma & Lava
•Minerals form from hot magma as it
cools inside the crust, or as lava cools
on the surface.
•When these liquids cool to a solid, they
form crystals (minerals).
•Size of the crystal depends on time it
takes to freeze into a solid.

16. Minerals Crystal Size
Rhyolite
Granite
When the hot material cools fast, it has
smaller crystal size. When it cools
slowly, it has large crystals.
You can’t see many
individual crystals in Rhyolite
= cooled very fast
You can see
individual crystals
in Granite
= cooled slowly

17. Minerals formed by Evaporation
 Some minerals form when
solutions/mixtures evaporate:
 When water evaporates, it leaves behind the
stuff that’s dissolved in it.
 The longer it takes to evaporate, the larger the
crystal.
 i.e. salt & water – ocean,
 Halite, Gypsum, Calcite.
***All the white stuff = salt mineral crystals that formed
when the water of this lake evaporated.
The mineral material was left behind

18. These salt crystals formed from
salt water because as the water
evaporated, the salt wasn’t
dissolved anymore. So the
chemical energy in salt takes
over and crystals form.
Do you notice the characteristic
cubic crystalline shapes?

19. Crystallization from Solutions
• When a solution becomes supersaturated
minerals will form through precipitation.

20. Mineral
Formation
• Cooling of magma:
crystallization
• Evaporation: salt
• Hydrothermal

21. Silicate minerals are the building
block of igneous rocks
Mountains, British Columbia
Granite: individual minerals
make-up the rock

22. Minerals are the building block
of rocks
Feldspar crystal
Biotite
Quartz
Hornblende

23. Eight elements make-up 99% of
the Earth’s crust
Silicon and oxygen make-up 70 % of the Earth’s crust

24. Humans cannot survive without
minerals
• 16 minerals needed
for humans to survive
• .03% of what we eat
but we would not
survive without the
minerals
• Sodium, potassium,
calcium, magnesium,
copper, phosphorous

25. How do we
identify Minerals?
We use the different physical and chemical properties
of the mineral to identify it from other different minerals
1. Luster: Describes how light is reflected from a
minerals surface.
Metallic luster – shiny faces that reflect light
Nonmetallic luster – does not shine like a metal;
can be dull, pearly, waxy, silky, or earthy

26. How do we
identify Minerals?
2. Crystal shape: Different minerals
make different crystal shapes
Halite always forms cubes.
Quartz forms six-sided crystals
with double pointed ends.

27. How do we
identify Minerals?
We use the different physical and
chemical properties
of the mineral to identify it from other
different minerals
3. Streak: Is the color
of the minerals powder
when dragged across a
surface.

28. Streak…can help identify quartz
http://www.childrensmuseum.org/geomysteries/cube/b3.html

29. How do we
identify Minerals?
4. Hardness:
Hardness is determined
by a “scratch test”.
•Friedrich Mohs
developed the Mohs
Scale of Hardness
How the mineral can be
scratched
• Fingernail
• Penny
• File or knife

31. How do we
identify Minerals?
5. Color:
•Every mineral has some natural color
•Most noticeable characteristic of a
mineral; usually caused by presence
of trace elements
Examples: obsidian – black; sulfur –
yellow; apatite - blue

33. 6. Fracture/ Cleavage
Fracture
• Mineral breaks
unevenly or
irregularly
Cleavage
• The tendency of a
Mineral to break
evenly along its
weakest plane.

34. cleavage
fracture fracture
cleavage

36. Special Properties
• Some minerals display strange properties.
• These can include: Magnetism, fluorescence, and reactivity.
These minerals glow
in the dark.
A black light really brings it out!
The minerals in
this rock react
with acid
Fizzing!
The particles of minerals
of this rock act like magnets

37. Types of Minerals
On the basis of composition,
minerals are classified into four
main categories:
1. Siliceous Minerals
2. Metallic Minerals
3. Non-metallic minerals
4. Gem Minerals

38. Types of Minerals
Siliceous Minerals
•Most abundant of the minerals
•Contain chemical element silicon and
some aluminum, sodium, potassium,
hydrogen and oxygen.
Examples:
Feldspar, mica, amphibole, quartz,
serpentine, talc, olivine albite, hornblende
and chlorite

39. Types of Minerals
Non Metallic Minerals
• Contains carbonate, sulfates, and other
compounds or native elements of sulfur.
• They also contain calcium and magnesium
which are metals but considered as sources
of minerals.
Examples: calcite, sulfur, salt, borax, gypsum,
apatite, dolomite, halite, fluorite, kernite,
pearls and graphite.

40. Types of Minerals
Metallic Minerals
• It include common metal ores
• These ores have been formed due to a large
process of chemical and physical changes.
• These includes precious and semi precious
stones
• Examples:
Gold, silver, copper, platinum, iron, titanium,
mercury, uranium, aluminum, bauxite, azurite,

41. Types of Minerals
4. Gem Minerals
• Hardness of minerals depends on the
composition and arrangement of atoms.
• Examples:
Diamond, topaz, jade, garnet, sappire,
aquamarine, jade, tourmaline, corundum
and baryl, zircon.

44. EXTRACTION OF MINERALS
• Mining: The process of taking out minerals buried under the
rocks is called mining. There are two main methods of mining,
viz. open-cast mining and shaft mining.
a. Open Cast Mining: When minerals are taken out by removing
the surface layer, the process is called open-cast mining. Minerals
which lie at shallow depths are extracted by this process.
b. Shaft Mining: When deep bores (called shafts) are made to
reach the mineral deposits at great depth, the process is called shaft
mining.
• Drilling: When deep wells are bored to take out the mineral, the
process is called drilling. Petroleum and natural gas are extracted
by this method.
• Quarrying: When minerals are simply dug out from near the
surface, the process is called quarrying.

45. Minerals make-up many
practical parts of our lives

46. Glass is made from 6 minerals
• Silica
• Limestone
• Magnesium
• Boric acid
• Soda
• Aluminum
• 40 billion glass
containers/year in USA
• 35 % are recycled

47. Gold in California
• Discovered in the
American River, 1848
• Gold Rush- 1849
• Population of SF- 575
males,177 females, 60
children- March, 1848
• 100,000- December 1849
• Chinese, Welsh, German,
English, Mexican,
Spanish and French
• Diversity of California

48. Salt
• Early people collected salt
before they understood
how important the mineral
is for survival
• Mediterranean-salt cakes
were used as money
• Greeks traded salt for
slaves
• England flourished when
fuel for boiling brine
changed from wood to coal

49. Minerals are mined for our use
Magmatic copper, magnetite, uranium

50. ACTIVITY
1. Mineral definition?
2, How do minerals form?
3. How are minerals classified?
4. Name and describe the physical
characteristics to distinguish
minerals.

51. Activity
1. Upon knowing the value of minerals in our
everyday life, as a student how can you help in
conserving and preserving the natural sources of
these minerals? (200 words)
2. Assume you are a mineralogist, you are then
tasked to make an infographic that will state its
characteristics, properties, and significance
(whether economic, health and scientific).
Present these important data through a concept
map.