This interim list contains names and data for minerals which have been approved, discredited, redefined and renamed since the March 2009 listing currently on the IMA website, and for which names and data have been published. It is intended to update this interim list periodically while work continues on a new revised master-list of all IMA-approved and grandfathered (i.e., inherited from before 1960) minerals. Since the previous update (March 2011), a number of small corrections to formulae, references and status have been made. As well, a few mineral names which were included by mistake, for example because they had not been published, e.g. megawite, or were shown as being approved by the CNMNC when they had not been (fontarnauite) have been omitted from this latest list. It is intended to update this interim list periodically while work continues on a new revised master-list of all IMA-approved and grandfathered (i.e. inherited from before 1960) minerals. We hope to have that completed later in 2011. In the meantime, both lists should be consulted.

Note that the reference ‘MM’ in the reference column refers to entries in the CNMNC newsletter published in each issue of Mineralogical Magazine.

A=Approved; D= Discredited; Rn=Renamed; Rd=Redefined; Q=Questionable

This previously available official IMA-CNMNC list (updated version, March 2009) was compiled in a cooperation between the CNMNC with Ernest H. Nickel and Monte C. Nichols, and is supplied through the courtesy of Materials Data, Inc. Livermore, California, USA.

This list is available in PDF format.

The IMA list was derived from the MINERAL Database, authored by Ernest H. Nickel and Monte C. Nichols, and owned by Materials Data, Inc., and was produced expressly for use by the IMA/CNMNC. The full database is available for the cost of production and mailing through Materials Data, Inc.

The IMA list only gives the name and one key reference for each of the about 6500 entries, along with the chemical composition and the Strunz Classification (for valid mineral names). The status of each mineral name is given at the left of each entry in the following categories (also explained at the bottom of each page of the list):
A = Approved by the CNMNC
D = Discredited by the CNMNC
G = Grandfathered: original description preceded the establishment of the CNMNC in 1959, and generally regarded as a valid species
GROUP = a name used to designate a group of species
H = Hypothetical mineral (synthetic, anthropogenic, etc.)
I = Intermediate member of a solid-solution series (e.g., oligoclase, a member in the albite-anorthite series)
N = published without approval of the CNMNC
Q = Questionable
Rd = Redefinition approved by the CNMNC
Rn = Renamed with approval by the CNMNC

For obsolete mineral names not included in this list, consult the compilations by Jeffrey de Fourestier (1999) and Peter Bayliss (2000).

Copyright © 2007 Materials Data, Inc.
All rights to the use of the data presented here, either printed or electronic, rest with Materials Data, Inc.