Type of Minerals

Crystals of the mineral Pyrite from Peru Click on image for full size (124K JPG) Courtesy of Corel

There are at least 2000 minerals on Earth. That's a lot of minerals! But you don't need to know all of them to spot the minerals lurking in the rocks of your backyard. That is because only a small number are common within the rocks of the Earth's crust.

Minerals are divided into different groups.

The most common mineral group on Earth is called the silicate minerals, which all have the elements silica and oxygen as their main ingredients.

Other groups of minerals are called non-silicate minerals.