Halide minerals

The halide mineral class include those minerals with a dominant halide anion (F⁻, Cl⁻, Br⁻ and I⁻). Complex halide minerals may also have polyatomic anions in addition to or that include halides.

Examples include the following:

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, 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, however, currently most cryolite used is produced synthetically.

Many of the halide minerals occur in marine evaporite deposits. The Atacama Desert also has large quantities of halide minerals as well as chlorates, iodates, oxyhalides and the like as well as nitrates, borates and other water-soluble minerals—not only underground but it crusts on the surface due to the low rainfall—the Atacama is the world's driest desert as well as one of the oldest (25 million years)

IMA-CNMNC proposes a new hierarchical scheme (Mills et al., 2009). This list uses the Classification of Nickel–Strunz (mindat.org, 10 ed, pending publication).

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