Halide minerals are those

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

s with a dominant

halide In chemistry, a halide (rarely halogenide) is a binary chemical compound, of which one part is a halogen atom and the other part is an element or radical that is less electronegative (or more electropositive) than the halogen, to make a fl ...

anion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conven ...

(, , and ). Complex halide minerals may also have polyatomic anions. ImgSalt

Examples include the following: * Atacamite * Avogadrite (K,Cs)BF * Bararite (β) *

Bischofite Bischofite is a hydrous magnesium chloride mineral with formula MgCl2·6H2O. It belongs to halides and is a sea salt concentrate. It contains many macro- and micro-elements vital for human health, in much higher concentrations than can be found ...

* Brüggenite *

Calomel Calomel is a Mercury element, mercury chloride mineral with Chemical formula, formula Hg2Cl2 (see mercury(I) chloride). It was used as a medicine from the 16th to early 20th century, despite frequently causing mercury poisoning in patients. The ...

Carnallite Carnallite (also carnalite) is an evaporite mineral, a hydrated potassium magnesium chloride with formula KCl.MgCl2·6(H2O). It is variably colored yellow to white, reddish, and sometimes colorless or blue. It is usually massive to fibrous with r ...

* Cerargyrite/ Horn silver AgCl * Chlorargyrite AgCl,

bromargyrite Bromyrite or bromargyrite is a natural mineral form of silver bromide found mainly in Mexico and Chile. Hardness is 1.5 to 2. Related are chlorargyrite and iodyrite. It was first described in 1859 for an occurrence in Plateros, Zacatecas, Mexico ...

AgBr, and iodargyrite AgI *

Cryolite Cryolite ( Na3 Al F6, sodium hexafluoroaluminate) is a rare mineral identified with the once-large deposit at Ivittuut on the west coast of Greenland, mined commercially until 1987. It is used in the reduction ("smelting") of aluminium, in pest ...

* Cryptohalite (a)Handbook of Mineralogy - Cryptohalite
. * Dietzeite * Eglestonite * Embolite AgCl+AgBr * Eriochalcite *

Fluorite Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon. The Mohs scal ...

Halite Halite ( ), commonly known as rock salt, is a type of salt, the mineral (natural) form of sodium chloride ( Na Cl). Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pi ...

NaCl * Lautarite * Marshite CuI * Miersite AgI * Nantokite CuCl * Sal Ammoniac *

Sylvite Sylvite, or sylvine, is potassium chloride (KCl) in natural mineral form. It forms crystals in the isometric system very similar to normal rock salt, halite ( NaCl). The two are, in fact, isomorphous. Sylvite is colorless to white with shades ...

KCl *

Terlinguaite Terlinguaite is the naturally occurring mineral with formula . It is formed by the weathering of other mercury (element), mercury-containing minerals. It was discovered in 1900 in the Terlingua, Texas, Terlingua District of Brewster County, Texa ...

* Tolbachite * Villiaumite NaF *

Yttrocerite Yttrocerite is a variety of the mineral fluorite with a chemical formula Ca F2+( Y, Ce) F3. It is bluish red with isometric crystals and is named for the yttrium and cerium it contains. It has a Mohs hardness of 4–5. It has been found in Swe ...

(Ca,Y,Ce)F₂ * Yttrofluorite (Ca,Y)F₂ *

Zavaritskite Zavaritskite is a rare mineral of the halide class, bismuth oxyhalide with the chemical formula (BiO)F. It is named after the Soviet geologist and petrographer, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Alexander Nikolaevich Zavaritsky. It was d ...

(BiO)F Many of these minerals are water-soluble and are often found in arid areas in crusts and other deposits as are various borates, nitrates, iodates, bromates and the like. Others, such as the

fluorite Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon. The Mohs scal ...

group, are not water-soluble. As a collective whole, simple halide minerals (containing fluorine through iodine, alkali metals, alkaline Earth metals, in addition to other metals/cations) occur abundantly at the surface of the Earth in a variety of geologic settings. More complex minerals as shown below are also found.Sorrel, Charles A., ''Rocks & Minerals'' (originally ''Minerals of the World''), Chapter "Halides", pp. 118–127, 1973, St Martin's Press: NYC · Racine, WI, .

Commercially significant halide minerals

Two commercially important halide minerals are halite and fluorite. The former is a major source of sodium chloride, in parallel with sodium chloride extracted from sea water or brine wells. Fluorite is a major source of

hydrogen fluoride Hydrogen fluoride (fluorane) is an Inorganic chemistry, inorganic compound with chemical formula . It is a very poisonous, colorless gas or liquid that dissolves in water to yield hydrofluoric acid. It is the principal industrial source of fluori ...

, complementing the supply obtained as a byproduct of the production of fertilizer. Carnallite and bischofite are important sources of magnesium. Natural cryolite was historically required for the production of

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

, however, currently most cryolite used is produced synthetically. Many of the halide minerals occur in marine

evaporite An evaporite () is a water- soluble sedimentary mineral deposit that results from concentration and crystallization by evaporation from an aqueous solution. There are two types of evaporite deposits: marine, which can also be described as oce ...

deposits. Other geologic occurrences include arid environments such as

deserts A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the l ...

. The

Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barre ...

has large quantities of halide minerals as well as chlorates, iodates, oxyhalides, nitrates, borates and other water-soluble minerals. Not only do those minerals occur in subsurface geologic deposits, they also form crusts on the Earth's surface due to the low rainfall (the Atacama is the world's driest desert as well as one of the oldest at 25 million years of age).

Nickel–Strunz Classification -03- Halides

IMA-CNMNC proposes a new hierarchical scheme (Mills et al., 2009). This list uses the Classification of Nickel–Strunz (

mindat.org Mindat.org is a non-commercial interactive online database covering minerals around the world. Originally created by Jolyon Ralph as a private project in 1993, it was launched as a community-editable website in October 2000. it is operated by ...

, 10 ed, pending publication). ;Abbreviations: * ''REE'':

rare-earth element The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or rare earths, and sometimes the lanthanides or lanthanoids (although scandium and yttrium, which do not belong to this series, are usually included as rare earths), are a set o ...

(Sc, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu) * ''PGE'': platinum-group element (Ru, Rh, Pd, Os, Ir, Pt) * ''*'' : discredited (IMA/CNMNC status) * ''?'' : questionable/doubtful (IMA/CNMNC status) Regarding 03.C Aluminofluorides, 06 Borates, 08 Vanadates (04.H V^{,6/sup> Vanadates), 09 Silicates:
* ''neso-'': insular (from Greek

Greek may refer to:

Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
, "island")
* ''soro-'': grouped (from Greek

Greek may refer to:

Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
, "heap, pile, mound")
* ''cyclo-'': ringed (from Greek

Greek may refer to:

Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
, "circle")
* ''ino-'': chained (from Greek

Greek may refer to:

Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
, "fibre", rom Ancient Greek
* ''phyllo-'': sheeted (from Greek

Greek may refer to:

Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
, "leaf")
* ''tecto-'': of three-dimensional framework (from Greek

Greek may refer to:

Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
, "of building")
;Nickel–Strunz code scheme ''NN.XY.##x'':
* ''NN'': Nickel–Strunz mineral class number
* ''X'': Nickel–Strunz mineral division letter
* ''Y'': Nickel–Strunz mineral family letter
* ''##x'': Nickel–Strunz mineral/group number; ''x'' an add-on letter

Class: halides

* 03.A Simple halides, without H₂O
** 03.AA M:X = 1:1, 2:3, 3:5, etc.: Panichiite; 05 Nantokite, 05 Marshite, 05 Miersite; 10 Iodargyrite, 10 Tocornalite; 15 Bromargyrite

Bromyrite or bromargyrite is a natural mineral form of silver bromide found mainly in Mexico and Chile. Hardness is 1.5 to 2. Related are chlorargyrite and iodyrite.

It was first described in 1859 for an occurrence in Plateros, Zacatecas, Mexico ...
, 15 Embolite*, 15 Chlorargyrite; 20 Carobbiite, 20 Griceite, 20 Halite

Halite ( ), commonly known as rock salt, is a type of salt, the mineral (natural) form of sodium chloride ( Na Cl). Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pi ...
, 20 Sylvite

Sylvite, or sylvine, is potassium chloride (KCl) in natural mineral form. It forms crystals in the isometric system very similar to normal rock salt, halite ( NaCl). The two are, in fact, isomorphous. Sylvite is colorless to white with shades ...
, 20 Villiaumite; 25 Sal ammoniac, 25 Lafossaite; 30 Calomel

Calomel is a Mercury element, mercury chloride mineral with Chemical formula, formula Hg2Cl2 (see mercury(I) chloride). It was used as a medicine from the 16th to early 20th century, despite frequently causing mercury poisoning in patients.

The ...
, 30 Kuzminite, 30 Moschelite; 35 Neighborite; 40 Chlorocalcite, 45 Kolarite, 50 Radhakrishnaite; 55 Hephaistosite, 55 Challacolloite
** 03.AB M:X = 1:2: 05 Tolbachite, 10 Coccinite, 15 Sellaite; 20 Chloromagnesite*, 20 Lawrencite, 20 Scacchite; 25 Frankdicksonite, 25 Fluorite

Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon.

The Mohs scal ...
; 30 Tveitite-(Y); 35 Gagarinite-(Y); 35 Zajacite-(Ce)
Gagarinite-(Ce) previously zajacite-(Ce) is a rare radioactive fluoride mineral with formula Na( REE''x'' Ca1−''x'')(REE''y''Ca1−''y'') F6. REE refers to rare-earth elements, mostly those belonging to the lanthanide series. It crystallizes in ...

** 03.AC M:X = 1:3: 05 Zharchikhite, 10 Molysite; 15 Fluocerite-(Ce), 15 Fluocerite-(La), 20 Gananite
* 03.B Simple Halides, with H₂O
** 03.BA M:X = 1:1 and 2:3: 05 Hydrohalite, 10 Carnallite

Carnallite (also carnalite) is an evaporite mineral, a hydrated potassium magnesium chloride with formula KCl.MgCl2·6(H2O). It is variably colored yellow to white, reddish, and sometimes colorless or blue. It is usually massive to fibrous with r ...

** 03.BB M:X = 1:2: 05 Eriochalcite, 10 Rokuhnite, 15 Bischofite

Bischofite is a hydrous magnesium chloride mineral with formula MgCl2·6H2O. It belongs to halides and is a sea salt concentrate. It contains many macro- and micro-elements vital for human health, in much higher concentrations than can be found ...
, 20 Nickelbischofite, 25 Sinjarite, 30 Antarcticite, 35 Tachyhydrite
** 03.BC M:X = 1:3: 05 Chloraluminite
** 03.BD Simple Halides with H₂O and additional OH: 05 Cadwaladerite, 10 Lesukite, 15 Korshunovskite, 20 Nepskoeite, 25 Koenenite
* 03.C Complex Halides
** 03.C: Steropesite, IMA2008-032, IMA2008-039
** 03.CA Borofluorides: 05 Ferruccite; 10 Avogadrite, 10 Barberiite
** 03.CB Neso-aluminofluorides: 05 Cryolithionite; 15 Cryolite

Cryolite ( Na3 Al F6, sodium hexafluoroaluminate) is a rare mineral identified with the once-large deposit at Ivittuut on the west coast of Greenland, mined commercially until 1987.

It is used in the reduction ("smelting") of aluminium, in pest ...
, 15 Elpasolite, 15 Simmonsite; 20 Colquiriite, 25 Weberite, 30 Karasugite, 35 Usovite; 40 Pachnolite, 40 Thomsenolite; 45 Carlhintzeite, 50 Yaroslavite
** 03.CC Soro-aluminofluorides: 05 Gearksutite; 10 Acuminite, 10 Tikhonenkovite; 15 Artroeite; 20 Calcjarlite, 20 Jarlite, 20 Jorgensenite
** 03.CD Ino-aluminofluorides: 05 Rosenbergite, 10 Prosopite
** 03.CE Phyllo-aluminofluorides: 05 Chiolite
** 03.CF Tekto-aluminofluorides: 05 Ralstonite, 10 Boldyrevite?, 15 Bogvadite
** 03.CG Aluminofluorides with CO₃, SO₄, PO₄: 05 Stenonite; 10 Chukhrovite-(Nd), 10 Chukhrovite-(Ce), 10 Chukhrovite-(Y), 10 Meniaylovite; 15 Creedite, 20 Boggildite, 25 Thermessaite
** 03.CH: 05 Malladrite, 10 Bararite; 15 Cryptohalite, 15 Hieratite; 20 Demartinite, 25 Knasibfite
** 03.CJ With MX₆ complexes; M = Fe, Mn, Cu: 05 Chlormanganokalite, 05 Rinneite; 10 Erythrosiderite, 10 Kremersite; 15 Mitscherlichite, 20 Douglasite, 30 Zirklerite
* 03.D Oxyhalides, Hydroxyhalides and Related Double Halides
** 03.DA With Cu, etc., without Pb: 05 Melanothallite; 10a Atacamite, 10a Kempite, 10a Hibbingite, 10b Botallackite, 10b Clinoatacamite, 10b Belloite, 10c Gillardite, 10c Kapellasite, 10c Haydeeite, 10c Paratacamite, 10c Herbertsmithite; 15 Claringbullite, 20 Simonkolleite; 25 Buttgenbachite, 25 Connellite; 30 Abhurite, 35 Ponomarevite; 40 Calumetite, 40 Anthonyite; 45 Khaidarkanite, 50 Bobkingite, 55 Avdoninite, 60 Droninoite
** 03.DB With Pb, Cu, etc.: 05 Diaboleite

Diaboleite is a blue-colored mineral with formula Pb2CuCl2(OH)4. It was discovered in England in 1923 and named ''diaboleite'', from the Greek word διά and boleite, meaning "distinct from boleite". The mineral has since been found in a number ...
, 10 Pseudoboleite, 15 Boleite, 20 Cumengite, 25 Bideauxite, 30 Chloroxiphite, 35 Hematophanite; 40 Asisite, 40 Parkinsonite; 45 Murdochite, 50 Yedlinite
** 03.DC With Pb (As, Sb, Bi), without Cu: 05 Laurionite, 05 Paralaurionite; 10 Fiedlerite, 15 Penfieldite, 20 Laurelite; 25 Zhangpeishanite, 25 Matlockite, 25 Rorisite, 25 Daubreeite, 25 Bismoclite, 25 Zavaritskite

Zavaritskite is a rare mineral of the halide class, bismuth oxyhalide with the chemical formula (BiO)F. It is named after the Soviet geologist and petrographer, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Alexander Nikolaevich Zavaritsky. It was d ...
; 30 Nadorite, 30 Perite; 35 Aravaipaite, 37 Calcioaravaipaite, 40 Thorikosite, 45 Mereheadite, 50 Blixite, 55 Pinalite, 60 Symesite; 65 Ecdemite, 65 Heliophyllite; 70 Mendipite, 75 Damaraite, 80 Onoratoite, 85 Cotunnite, 90 Pseudocotunnite, 95 Barstowite
** 03.DD With Hg: 05 Eglestonite, 05 Kadyrelite; 10 Poyarkovite, 15 Hanawaltite, 20 Terlinguaite

Terlinguaite is the naturally occurring mineral with formula . It is formed by the weathering of other mercury (element), mercury-containing minerals. It was discovered in 1900 in the Terlingua, Texas, Terlingua District of Brewster County, Texa ...
, 25 Pinchite; 30 Mosesite, 30 Gianellaite; 35 Kleinite, 40 Tedhadleyite, 45 Vasilyevite, 50 Aurivilliusite, 55 Terlinguacreekite, 60 Kelyanite, 65 Comancheite
** 03.DE With Rare-Earth Elements: 05 Haleniusite-(La)
* 03.X Unclassified Strunz Halogenides
** 03.XX Unknown: 00 Hydrophilite

Antarcticite is an uncommon calcium chloride hexahydrate mineral with formula CaCl2·6H2O. It forms colorless Acicular (crystal habit), acicular trigonal crystals. It is hygroscopy, hygroscopic and has a low relative density of 1.715.

As its name ...
?, 00 Hydromolysite?, 00 Yttrocerite

Yttrocerite is a variety of the mineral fluorite with a chemical formula Ca F2+( Y, Ce) F3. It is bluish red with isometric crystals and is named for the yttrium and cerium it contains. It has a Mohs hardness of 4–5. It has been found in Swe ...
*, 00 Lorettoite?, 00 IMA2009-014, 00 IMA2009-015

References

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External links

Handbook of Mineralogy

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