A mineral is a naturally occuring, homogeneous, solid with a crystalline atomic structure. Crystallinity implies that a mineral has a definite and limited range of composition, and that the composition is expressible as a chemical formula. Some definitions of minerals give them as inorganic materials, however both diamonds and graphite are considered minerals, and both are primarily comprised of carbon, which would make them organic. So this leads me, as an engineer, to believe that mineralogists do not have a good, precise definition of a mineral, but rather a loose definition. The definition above, is the most inclusive and would include all substances currently described as minerals. The key items that make something a mineral are occurring naturally, and the definite crystal structure, that is expressible as a chemical formula. Rocks that do not meet this criteria are referred to as amorphis - not having a definite structure or expressible as a chemical formula. Some elements that occur naturally and are minerals are arsenic, bismuth, platinum, gold, silver, copper, and sulphur.
THE DEFINITION OF ORGANIC: Organic chemistry is the study of those substances containing carbon in combination with hydrogen (H), and a few other non metals, namely oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), sulfur (S) and the halogens (F2, Cl2, Br2, and I2).
  Pure quartz crystals  White Quartz  Quartzite - called dirty quartz |
Quartz is commonly found in crystals as a hexagonal prism (top photo, which is from Calavaras County, California), has a hardness of 7 mhos, SG of 2.65, is
colorless, white, yellow, red, pink, amethystine green, blue, brown and black. It has a white streak.
there are at least 11 varieties of quartz, several are rock crystal (colorless), Amethyst (purpleish),
Rose( pink to rose color) and Milky Quartz (white). Quartzite is a metamorphosed sandstone. Quartz is the most common oxide mineral. It has many uses, glass, optics, sand for construction and building, part of cement and plaster, is used as a building stone, pottery, flux in metallurgical applications, has abrasive uses and is the key ingredient in computer chips (silicon is extracted from quartz). |