Copper Minerals 

Lead Minerals  

Zinc Minerals  

Iron Minerals  

Other Metallic Minerals  

Gangue Minerals 

Quiz  
 

Pyrite, a common ore mineral

Ore minerals are often economically viable to extract (depending on the economics of the country with the ore deposit).  
Ore minerals can be metallic and non-metallic. 
When the ore minerals are extracted the host rock is extracted too, within this may be minerals of economic unimportance, these are often termed gangue minerals. Some gangue minerals are important for industrial use, these are listed under Gangue minerals.  

• concentrations in veins, stockworks and pipes
• disseminations, throughout the ore body
• Minerals often occur in groups, minerals can be associated with one another. No particular mineral can be assigned to any one deposit, all deposits are different and therefore contain different minerals. 

There are hundreds of ore minerals and gangue minerals the most common are listed on this page. 
The diagnostic characteristics of these minerals are stated in terms of what they look like with the naked eye, these characteristics have blue subheadings. The diagnostic characteristics for some of the metallic ore minerals are stated in terms of their appearance under light microscopy,in plain polarized light, these characteristics have green sub headings.  

Photos accompany each mineral, ones with light microscopy data also have microscope pictures. To get to the original location of the photo click on it. For more mineral images see web sites : all of the following are excellent sites 
http://www.smenet.org/opaque-ore/ 
http://pangea.stanford.edu/~kurt/kurt-geo-lingo.html 
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ug7s-ktu/se_mine.htm 
http://www.theimage.com/mineral/minerals1.html 
http://un2sg4.unige.ch/athena/mineral/mineral.html 

For more microscope pictures see web site : 
http://www.smenet.org/opaque-ore/ very good web site 

Photos are by kind permission of :
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ug7s-ktu/se_mine.htm
http://www.theimage.com/mineral/minerals1.html 
http://mineral.galleries.com/default.htm

The blue coloured box to the left is a contents bar.  

The quiz at the end of the page can be used to test your knowledge.  
 
(All images from  http://mineral.galleries.com/default.htm have a copyright on them and can only be used for educational purposes Copyright ©1995-1998 by Amethyst Galleries, Inc). 

Page updated 06/1999 page composed by Tracey Laight Oxford Brookes University Geology Department