By Name A list of minerals in alphabetical order By Class Elements, Oxides, Carbonates, etc. Interesting Groupings Gemstones, Birthstones, etc. Full Text Search Mineral identification by keyword searching The oxide class of minerals is a rather diverse class. It has metallic minerals such as hematite and gemstones such as corundum, chrysoberyl and spinel.
Many oxides are black but others can be very colorful.
The large diversity of oxides can be partially attributed to the extreme abundance of oxygen in the Earth's crust. But great opportunities exist for single oxygen ions to combine with various elements in many different ways. In a strict sense, minerals that belong to the more complex mineral classes such as the silicates are really oxides. By convention therefore, the oxides are limited to non complex minerals containing oxygen or hydroxide. Oxides also contain mostly ionic bonds and this helps distinguish members from the more complex mineral classes whose bonds are typically more covalent in nature.