Introduction

Abstract

Minerals have been used in a number of various ways from time immemorial. Man has been using minerals even when he didn’t know its definition. Hence with the progress of civilization the concern about minerals slowly increased and it is this concern which gave birth to the science of mineralogy. Mineralogy is narrowly defined as the science of minerals. Moreover the scope of this subject covers a much wider range which encompasses mineral definition, origin, structure, properties and their impact on environment and applications in modern industry. Now human civilization is just indispensable without minerals. So before investigating the various aspects of mineralogy in details, let‘s have a closer look into the history and development of the science of mineralogy.