Category Geography

Valuable minerals are either metal or rock that can be processed and converted for economic purposes. Gemstones such as diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds are valuable minerals. Gold and silver are also precious. Palladium is considered more precious than gold and it is very valuable to automotive industries.

Diamond

Diamond is commercially the most popular mineral because of its eminent role in the world of jewelry trading.

 Rubies

Rubies are considered to be the most expensive gemstones in the world. They get their alluring red color from the presence of chromium. The largest supply of this mineral was harvested in Burma, which is known as the Mecca for rubies.

Gold

Many people think gold is the most valuable and most expensive mineral in the world, but this is a common misconception because there are other minerals that are far more worthy than gold. Still, it is a highly valued, expensive mineral.

Rhodium

Because of its rarity and industrial application, this silver-white noble metal is the world’s most expensive mineral. Rhodium became popular as a result of its highly valued catalytic application in the automotive industry. The largest supply of this mineral was found in 2009 in South Africa and Russia.

Lithium

This mineral which is commonly known as a crucial ingredient in the production of rechargeable batteries was first discovered in 1817 in Stockholm by the Swedish chemist Johan August Arfvedson. Lithium is a highly valued mineral which represents a billion dollar industry. The largest supplies of this mineral are found in Afghanistan.

Blue Garnet

Garnets can be found in various colors like brown, green, orange, pink, purple, red and yellow. Among all these colors the blue garnet is the only one with a considerably high value. This mineral was first discovered in the 1990s in Madagascar, and since then it has been mined in Russia, Turkey and the United States.

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Very hard, very rare and very old, diamonds are essentially carbon that has been transformed under great pressure deep inside Earth. It is usually volcanic activity that brings them near the surface again after billions of years and makes mining possible. Diamonds are the hardest natural substance ever found.

1. The ancient Romans and Greeks believed that diamonds were tears cried by the gods or splinters from falling stars, and Romans believed that Cupid’s arrows were tipped with diamonds (perhaps the earliest association between diamonds and romantic love).
2. Diamonds are nearly as old as the earth and take billions of years to form deep in the pit of the earth. Very few diamonds survive the trip from the depths of the earth to the crust where they can be mined. No two diamonds are the same and carry their own unique properties such as internal inclusions and color. 
3. Diamonds form about 100 miles below ground and have been carried to the earth’s surface by deep volcanic eruptions.
4. Diamonds are made of a single element—they are nearly 100% carbon. Under the extreme heat and pressure far below the earth’s surface, the carbon atoms bond in a unique way that results in diamonds’ beautiful and rare crystalline structure.
5. The word diamond derives from the Greek word “adamas,” which means invincible or indestructible.
6. Diamonds are the hardest natural substance on earth ranking a 10 on the Mohs Scale of Hardness. The only thing that can scratch a diamond’s surface is another diamond.
7. Diamonds have been valued and coveted for thousands of years by the likes of royalty and mythical beings. There is evidence that diamonds were being collected and traded in India as early as the fourth century BC. In the first century AD, the Roman naturalist Pliny is quoted as having said, “Diamond is the most valuable, not only of precious stones, but of all things in this world.”
8. Ancient Hindus used diamonds in the eyes of devotional statues and believed that a diamond could protect its wearer from danger.
9. Many ancient cultures believed that diamonds gave the wearer strength and courage during battle, and some kings wore diamonds on their armor as they rode into battle.
10. During the Middle Ages diamonds were thought to have healing properties able to cure ailments ranging from fatigue to mental illness. 

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Minerals are natural chemicals from which Earth’s crust is formed. There are around 2000 individual minerals, each with a unique colour and shape. A few are powdery or resinous, but most are crystals. Some minerals, such as gold and silver, are pure chemical elements, but the majority are compounds, of which silicates are most common.

The earth is composed of mineral elements, either alone or in a myriad of combinations called compounds. A mineral is composed of a single element or compound. By definition, a mineral is a naturally occurring inorganic substance with a definite chemical composition and ordered atomic structure.

• Table salt is a mineral called sodium chloride. Its ordered structure is apparent because it occurs in crystals shaped like small cubes.
• Another common mineral is quartz, or silicon dioxide. Its crystals have a specific hexagonal shape. Coal is a mineral composed entirely of carbon, originally trapped by living organisms through the process of photosynthesis.
• The carbon in coal is therefore of organic origin which leads some authorities to object to the definition of a mineral as an inorganic substance.
• Limestone is a rock composed of a single mineral calcium carbonate. On the basis of their origin on earth rocks may be divided into three primary categories: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.

Minerals have been broadly classified into two classes, primary minerals and secondary minerals. Minerals which were formed by igneous process that is from the cooling down of the molten materials called magma, have been put in the primary category, while those formed by other processes have been put in the secondary category. Primary minerals which occur in the sand fractions of the soil had not undergone any change.

Other primary minerals had been altered to form the secondary minerals for example, the primary mineral mica had been altered to form the secondary mineral illite. Some other primary minerals for example, olivine, anorthite, hornblende etc., had been completely decomposed; the decomposition products recombined together to form the secondary minerals.

Minerals may be identified by their crystal structure, physical properties and chemical composition.

Like vitamins, minerals help your body grow, evolve and remain healthy. The body uses minerals to perform many functions — from building strong bones to nerve impulse transmission. Some minerals also create hormones or hold a regular heartbeat.

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Crystals are glassy-looking, brittle solids that form shapes with sharp corners and flat sides. Natural crystals form when a liquid cools and hardens, and the molecules in the liquid cluster in a particular pattern – a pyramid, cube, etc. Rare and beautiful crystals such as rubies and emeralds are valued as gems. Many are termed ‘precious’. They are rare because they only form naturally under very special conditions – usually deep within volcanic rocks.

Crystals are pure substances whose atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an ordered pattern, where they extend in all three spatial dimensions. A gem can be a crystal, while a crystal cannot be called as a gem.

Gemstone and Crystals are both used in various applications in today’s world. While gemstones are primarily used in jewelry and decoration pieces, crystals can be used in various applications such as healing, jewelry, vases, scientific purposes, etc.

Gemstones are rare pieces of minerals that are found in the ground, which are then cut and polished to be used in jewelry and other decorative pieces. Not all gems are minerals, such as lapis lazuli, a rock, and amber or jet, which are organic materials. A gemstone can also be known as precious or semi-precious stones. Precious stones include diamonds, emerald, ruby and sapphire, while the rest are qualified as semi-precious stones. Gemstones are classified by their color, translucency and hardness. Gems can also come with mineral bases like diamonds or rubies and with organic bases like amber. Today, geologists use the chemical composition of a gemstone to classify it into groups, species and varieties. The price of the gemstones depends on the rarity, color, composition, hardness and cut.

Crystals are pure substances whose atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an ordered pattern, where they extend in all three spatial dimensions. The process of crystal formation via mechanisms of crystal growth is called crystallization or solidification. Not all crystals need to be in solid formation, where water freezing also begins with small ice crystals that grow. Crystal symmetry requires that the unit cells stack perfectly with no gaps. Crystals are classified as Hexagonal, cubic, orthorhombic, tetragonal, rhombohedral, and monoclinic shapes. Crystals are light in color and are mostly translucent. The color of crystal is determined by the light passing through it.  Crystals are less expensive compared to gemstones. Salt and snowflakes are the most common types of crystals that are encountered.

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When silicon and oxygen, the two most common chemical elements on Earth, combine with a metal, they forma silicate. There are over 500 silicates that exist, quartz is one.

Silicate mineral, any of a large group of silicon-oxygen compounds that are widely distributed throughout much of the solar system.

The silicates make up about 95 percent of Earth’s crust and upper mantle, occurring as the major constituents of most igneous rocks and in appreciable quantities in sedimentary and metamorphic varieties as well. They also are important constituents of lunar samples, meteorites, and most asteroids. In addition, planetary probes have detected their occurrence on the surfaces of Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Of the approximately 600 known silicate minerals, only a few dozen—a group that includes the feldspars, amphiboles, pyroxenes, micas, olivines, feldspathoids, and zeolites—are significant in rock formation.

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