6
$\begingroup$

I am building an open source spatial geochemical/geological observational database for mineral exploration. I need to fill the mineral lookup table.

Where can I find a complete list of all minerals and mineral-groups, chemical formula, Strunz and/or Dana number, or any other data.

I want the Strunz and/or Dana numbers so I can query the data and recode the data based upon mineral groups.

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
7
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ Are you familiar with mindat.org and webmineral.com ? $\endgroup$
    – Gimelist
    May 6 '16 at 8:29
  • $\begingroup$ I am but there is no clear simple way to download the data. I actually got the feeling that they don't want people to download their data, just use the Web interface $\endgroup$
    – Phillip Allen
    May 6 '16 at 17:23
  • $\begingroup$ Did you ask them? Try contacting the people behind it $\endgroup$
    – Gimelist
    May 6 '16 at 22:08
  • $\begingroup$ nrmima.nrm.se/IMA_Master_List_2016-03.pdf Is that what you're looking for? $\endgroup$
    – Gimelist
    May 7 '16 at 12:19
  • $\begingroup$ Would the Elsevier Mineral and Rock table help you out? Link here: sdgs.usd.edu/pubs/Scans/… Note that it's a 20mb jpeg, so maybe right-click>Save As to avoid browser crashes $\endgroup$
    – Ben MS
    May 8 '16 at 23:56
3
$\begingroup$

After looking at the source from nrmima.nrm.se/IMA_Master_List_2016-03.pdf, I discovered the: IMA Database of Mineral Properties Created and maintained by the RRUFF Project in partnership with the IMA http://rruff.info/ima/

I downloaded all the minerals in a csv file. This worked very well for two reasons. First they had various chemical formula formats that were favorable for entry into a database. Second they had a mineral group column. The mineral group column was very important since often in the field the exact mineral is not noted but a group such as chlorite or garnet. I will worry about Strunz or Dana numbers/codes at a later date.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
0
$\begingroup$

There is probably no such thing as a totally comprehensive list of minerals because nobody agrees upon what constitutes a mineral, as opposed to a multiple variants of the same mineral. There is also a grey area between 'natural' and 'synthetic'.
That said, however, the international centre for diffraction data (i.e. for X-ray powder diffraction work) has a recent catalogue of minerals called PDF-4 +2015, which includes more than 365,000 entries! You may have to sift through the catalogue to determine which are genuinely natural minerals that you want in your own catalogue. The '-4' indicates actual minerals as opposed to pharmaceuticals etc, which are under a different catalogue. You can access their flyer from:

http://www.icdd.com/products/flyers/PDF-4plus.pdf

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
1
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ There are clear definitions as to what is a mineral, as opposed to variants of the same mineral. These definitions are being constantly updated as well. The grey area between 'natural' and 'synthetic' is extremely tiny and limited to just a few minerals that were first discovered in anthropogenic settings. For more info: nrmima.nrm.se $\endgroup$
    – Gimelist
    May 10 '16 at 11:52

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.