Mindat.org is a non-commercial online mineralogical

Mineralogy

Mineralogy is the study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization.-History:Early writing...

 database, claiming to be the largest mineral database and mineralogical reference website on the internet.

It contains a significant database

Database

A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...

 of minerals, localities and mineral photographs, and is updated constantly by registered users adding and editing entries.

, it included:

• 38,645 mineral names (this includes mineral varieties, synonym
  Synonym
  Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...
  
  s and discredited names, of which 4,499 are minerals recognised by the International Mineralogical Association
  International Mineralogical Association
  The International Mineralogical Association is an international group of 38 national societies. The goal is to promote the science of mineralogy and to standardize the nomenclature of the 4000 plus known mineral species...
  
  .
• 215,428 mineral localities worldwide, with information on 655,721 mineral occurrences within these sites
• 125,641 of the localities have maps and/or grid coordinates available, and the site can use a google map applet to show the location.
• 319,961 photos of minerals have been uploaded, arranged into galleries from collectors worldwide who wish to share their mineral collections online.
• 3,596 users registered to upload photos and/or edit data.

History of Mindat.org

Mindat was started in 1993 as a personal database project by Jolyon Ralph. He then developed further versions as a Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

 application before launching a community-editable database web site in late 2000. http://manual.mindat.org/index.php/History_of_Mindat. Mindat.org now uses the mediawiki

MediaWiki

MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...

 software for its online manual. http://manual.mindat.org

See also

• Commons:Robert Lavinsky. Lavinsky, a well-known mineral collector and dealer, donated his complete picture database on mindat.org to Wikimedia Commons
  Wikimedia Commons
  Wikimedia Commons is an online repository of free-use images, sound and other media files. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation....
  
  , over 30,000 photos of minerals.