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Topic Review
Biography
Topic Review
List of Minerals A (Complete)
This list includes those recognised minerals beginning with the letter A. The International Mineralogical Association is the international group that recognises new minerals and new mineral names, however minerals discovered before 1959 did not go through the official naming procedure, although some minerals published previously have been either confirmed or discredited since that date. This list contains a mixture of mineral names that have been approved since 1959 and those mineral names believed to still refer to valid mineral species (these are called "grandfathered" species). The list is divided into groups: The data was exported from mindat.org on 29 April 2005; updated up to 'IMA2018'. The minerals are sorted by name, followed by the structural group (rruff.info/ima and ima-cnmnc by mineralienatlas.de, mainly) or chemical class (mindat.org and basics), the year of publication (if it's before of an IMA approval procedure), the IMA approval and the Nickel–Strunz code. The first link is to mindat.org, the second link is to webmineral.com, and the third is to the Handbook of Mineralogy (Mineralogical Society of America).
3.8K
05 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Dry Permanent Magnetic Separator
Dry magnetic separation is a technology that sorts magnetic minerals from gangue using air as the medium instead of water. When raw ore is fed to the magnetic separator, the magnetic particles are subjected to magnetic force due to the nonuniform magnetic field. When the magnetic force exceeds the competitive force (i.e., gravity and fluid drag force), the particles are captured on or attracted towards the surface of the drum and consequently enter the magnetic product. Meanwhile, the gangue or poor intergrowth particles are not subjected to magnetic force and are separated into the non-magnetic product under the action of competitive force. In other words, magnetic minerals and gangue have different trajectories in a magnetic separator, thereby achieving the purpose of separation. Dry magnetic separation has been recently adopted by plants to cope with cost and environmental pressures.
2.5K
24 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Silicate Minerals
Silicate minerals are rock-forming minerals made up of silicate groups. They are the largest and most important class of minerals and make up approximately 90 percent of the Earth's crust. In mineralogy, silica (silicon dioxide) SiO2 is usually considered a silicate mineral. Silica is found in nature as the mineral quartz, and its polymorphs. On Earth, a wide variety of silicate minerals occur in an even wider range of combinations as a result of the processes that have been forming and re-working the crust for billions of years. These processes include partial melting, crystallization, fractionation, metamorphism, weathering, and diagenesis. Living organisms also contribute to this geologic cycle. For example, a type of plankton known as diatoms construct their exoskeletons ("frustules") from silica extracted from seawater. The frustules of dead diatoms are a major constituent of deep ocean sediment, and of diatomaceous earth.
2.0K
25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Plagioclase
Plagioclase is a series of tectosilicate (framework silicate) minerals within the feldspar group. Rather than referring to a particular mineral with a specific chemical composition, plagioclase is a continuous solid solution series, more properly known as the plagioclase feldspar series. This was first shown by the German mineralogist Johann Friedrich Christian Hessel (1796–1872) in 1826. The series ranges from albite to anorthite endmembers (with respective compositions NaAlSi3O8 to CaAl2Si2O8), where sodium and calcium atoms can substitute for each other in the mineral's crystal lattice structure. Plagioclase in hand samples is often identified by its polysynthetic crystal twinning or 'record-groove' effect. Plagioclase is a major constituent mineral in the Earth's crust, and is consequently an important diagnostic tool in petrology for identifying the composition, origin and evolution of igneous rocks. Plagioclase is also a major constituent of rock in the highlands of the Moon. Analysis of thermal emission spectra from the surface of Mars suggests that plagioclase is the most abundant mineral in the crust of Mars. Its name comes from Ancient Greek plágios (πλάγιος 'oblique') + klásis ((κλάσις 'fracture'), in reference to its two cleavage angles.
1.9K
25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Clays and the Origin of Life
Clays are able to replicate and drive the evolution of metabolism; they have the catalytic ability to synthesize monomers (amino acids, nucleotides and so on) and polymerize them, resulting in RNA–peptide worlds in which RNA replicates (genes) and, in cooperation with coded peptides, drives the evolution of the cell.
1.9K
25 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Recovery of Palladium from the Spent Automobile Catalysts
The spent automobile catalysts (SAC) is the major secondary source of palladium and the production of SAC is increasing rapidly over years. The price of palladium keeps rising over the years, which demonstrates its preciousness and urgent industrial demand. Recovering palladium from the spent automobile catalysts benefits a lot from economic and environmental protection aspects. Hydrometallurgical methods such as chloride leaching with oxidants possess a high selectivity of palladium and low consumption of energy, and are cost-effective and flexible for different volume feeds compared with pyrometallurgical methods. The recovery ratios of palladium and other platinum-group metals should be the focus of competition since their prices have been rapidly increased over the years, and hence more efficient extractants with high selectivity of palladium even in the complexed leachate should be proposed in the future.
1.6K
12 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Nickel Laterite Deposit
Tectonic emplacement of variably serpentinized ultramafic host rock on land and subsequent chemical weathering under humid tropical to subtropical conditions results in the formation of nickel laterite deposits. Nickel laterites typically occur as weathering mantle over ophiolite complexes, as well as komatiites and layered complexes in Archean to Phanerozoic stable cratonic platforms.
1.5K
01 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Potential Challenges to Agronomic Biofortification
Agronomic biofortification is the strategy to enhance the micronutrient contents in the edible parts of food crops through the application of mineral fertilizers. Agronomic biofortification can enrich crops with multiple elements, but the most common ones are Fe, Se, Zn, and I. It may be a suitable approach to reach resource-poor rural populations, provided they have access to chemical fertilizers. Soil-to-plant transfer and the accumulation of minerals in the edible portion of food crops determine the success of biofortification. In addition, the bioavailability of minerals from biofortified crops in the body influences the effectiveness of biofortification programs.
1.5K
07 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Coal Fly Ash Production, Utilization in India
Coal fly ash (CFA) is one of the most burning issues in the whole world due to its large amount of production in thermal power plants. Every year a million tons (MTs) of CFA are generated globally of which almost half is utilized in various forms, while the remaining half remains unused, leading to various types of pollution.
1.4K
28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Tungsten Resources in Mine Waste
Tungsten is recognized as a critical metal due to its unique properties, economic importance, and limited sources of supply. It has wide applications where hardness, high density, high wear, and high-temperature resistance are required, such as in mining, construction, energy generation, electronics, aerospace, and defense sectors. The two primary tungsten minerals, and the only minerals of economic importance, are wolframite and scheelite. Secondary tungsten minerals are rare and generated by hydrothermal or supergene alteration rather than by atmospheric weathering. There are no reported concerns for tungsten toxicity. However, tungsten tailings and other residues may represent severe risks to human health and the environment. Tungsten metal scrap is the only secondary source for this metal but reprocessing of tungsten tailings may also become important in the future.
1.1K
12 Jul 2021
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