Minerals

Minerals

Like everything, minerals are made up of tiny chemical particles (atoms and molecules) ordered like the rooms of a skyscraper.

This allows the mineral to grow, sometimes in the form of geometric solids with regular and flat faces. These natural forms are called crystals. Mineral crystals come in an infinite number of different shapes. Some form cubes, others rise in columns with three or more faces, called prisms, still others form complex solid shapes.

Man has always collected rocks and minerals to use them in various ways: he transforms them into tools, exploits them as fuel, uses them as building materials, obtains ornaments and jewels; but he also collects them to study them, to understand the structure and history of the Earth through them.

The mineral world forms all the rocks of our planet.

Wherever you live, in the city, in the countryside, in the mountains or by the sea, minerals are always around you. They are in the stones of the wall of your house, in the covering of the roofs, on the edges of the paths, in the rocks along the road, in the sand and pebbles of the beach. They are part of your daily life.

On this section we present the postage stamps issued by different states with the effigy of minerals rough or in crystals, meteorites and gems.

In nature it exists about 3700 mineral species divided into 9 classes

Class 1 Elements (metal and intermetallic alloys

carbides, metalloids and non metals)

Class 2 Sulfides and sulphosalts

Class 3 Halides

Class 4 Oxides, Hydroxides

Class 5 Carbonates, Nitrates

Class 6 Borates

Class 7 Sulfates, Chromates, Molibdates, Wolframates

Class 8 Phosphates, Arseniates, Vanadates

Class 9_1 Silicates - Neso - Soro - Cyclo silicates