Please consult a review of the Commission activities
and a list of Commission decisions since 1959.
The IMA-CNMMN has published over the past twenty-five years
in several mineralogical journals many official reports which contain the rules
and regulations about all aspects of the nomenclature of minerals and a number
of mineral groups. The following lists give an overview:
General mineralogical nomenclature
- Definition of a mineral
- Formal definitions of type mineral specimens
- Protocols on the depositions of investigated mineral specimens
- Procedures and guidelines on mineral nomenclature, 1998
- Solid solutions in mineral nomenclature
- Names, prefixes and suffixes, and adjectival modifiers
- Standardization of polytype suffixes
- Definitions of polytypism, topotaxy, syntaxy, epitaxy
- Format for chemical formulae and symbols for crystallographic axes and repeat distances
- Discreditation of mineral species
- Mineral names applied to synthetic substances
Nomenclature of mineral groups
- Amphiboles
- Micas
- Platinum-group-element alloys
- Pyrochlores
- Pyroxenes
- Zeolites
The reports mentioned in the these two lists have been compiled in a booklet form
by the Mineralogical Association of Canada and the Canadian Mineralogist on the occasion
of the IMA 17th General Meeting in Toronto (August 1998).
The booklet is available in two formats:
electronic and
hard copy.
Nomenclature reports (IMA and non-IMA) not included in the compilation
- Report of the IMA-IUCr Joint Committee on Nomenclature (polytypes): Am. Mineral., 62 (1977), 441-445.
- Clay minerals: Am. Mineral., 65 (1980), 1-7.
- Nomenclature for regular interstratifications: Am. Mineral., 67 (1982), 394-398.
- Nomenclature of rare-earth minerals: Am. Mineral., 51 (1966), 152-158,
and Am. Mineral., 73 (1988), 422-423.
- Nomenclature of axinites: Am. Mineral., 53 (1968), 1407-1410.
- Modular classification of sulphosalts: Neues Jahrb. Mineral., Abhandl., 160 (1989), 269-297.
- Site populations in minerals: terminology and presentation: Can. Mineral., 33 (1995), 907-911.
Recent IMA reports on mineral groups
- The IMA-CNMNC dominant-constituent rule revisited and extended: Can. Min., 46 (2008), 717-728.
- Joaquinite group: Can. Mineral., 39 (2001), 757-760.
- Labuntsovite group: Eur. J. Mineral., 14 (2002), 165-173.
- Högbomite group: Eur. J. Mineral., 14 (2002), 389-395.
- Hellandite group: Am. Mineral., 87 (2002), 745-752.
- Eudialyte group: Can. Mineral., 41 (2003), 785-794.
- Additions and Revisions to the IMA 1997 Amphibole nomenclature: Can. Mineral., 41 (2003), 1355-1362.
- Named amphiboles and the proper order of prefixes in amphibole names:
Can. Mineral., 42 (2004), 1881-1883.
- Arrojadite group: Am. Mineral., 91 (2006), 1249-1259 and
Am. Mineral., 91 (2006), 1260-1270
- Epidote group: Eur. J. Mineral., 18 (2006), 551-567.
- Modifiers in mineral nomenclature: Can. Mineral., 43 (2005), 1429-1433
- Mass discreditation of GQN minerals: Can. Mineral., 44 (2006), 1557-1560
- The official IMA-CNMNC List of Mineral Names
- A system of codification for unnamed minerals: Can. Mineral., 45 (2007), 983-990,
and updated lists (March 2009) of valid unnamed minerals,
invalid unnamed minerals,
and references for unnamed minerals
- Sulfosalt group: Eur. J. Mineral., 20 (2008), 7-46
- Tidying up mineral names: an IMA-CNMNC scheme for suffixes, hyphens and diacritical marks: Mineral. Record, 39 (2008), 131-135
- Sapphirine group: Min.Mag., 72 (2008), 838-876.
Reports not approved by the IMA-CNMNC
- Astrophyllite group: Can. Mineral., 41 (2003), 1-26
(discussed and commented within the IMA-CNMNC, but not presented by the authors to the IMA-CNMNC for formal approval).
- True and brittle micas: composition and solid-solution series: Mineral. Mag., 71 (2007), 285-320
(with Milan Rieder, mica subcommittee chairman, as co-author).
- Nomenclature relevant to clay mineralogy: Clays and Clay Minerals, 54 (2006), 761-772
and Clay Minerals, 41 (2006), 863-877.
IMA-CNMNC subcommittees working on reports
- Pyrochlores
- Tourmalines
- Alunites
- Sapphirines (Aenigmatites)
- Amphiboles
- Lovozerites
- Apatites