Question

How many different types of minerals are there?

Answer 1

Hint: The minerals may be classified into several types based on their constituents and behaviour with certain universally abundant compounds such as water and oxygen.

Complete answer: The minerals exist as ores which are under the crust of the Earth and are extracted by a process called mining and then they are refined by different processes. There are mainly two types of minerals, that is metallic minerals and non-metallic minerals. The metallic minerals are those which are high in concentration of metals and the non-metallic minerals are the ones which have no metallic content. Out of these, the metallic minerals are further classified as ferrous as well as non-ferrous minerals. The ferrous minerals are the ones which have iron content in them and the non-ferrous minerals are the ones which have no iron content in them. The examples of metallic minerals are zinc, chromium, nickel, iron, etc. The non-metallic minerals are the ones which are poor conductors of electricity and heat and are mica, gypsum, etc.

Note: Metalloid are the minerals which have qualities of both metals as well as non-metals and the examples of the same are antimony, arsenic, etc.