Are minerals no longer minerals if they contain even trace amounts of organic material? (please read body post before replying :0 /nm )

Hello! I tried posting to r/askscience but I think the post was rejected or deleted or something,, I hope this is an okay question to ask here! Sorry that the post will probably be long, I tend to yap...

My understanding of the definition of minerals is that minerals are anything that is:
Solid
Naturally-occurring
Inorganic
[If this isn't accurate, please let me know! I'm interested in geology in general but I am also using this information for a sci-fantasy book i'm writing, so even though I could get away with doing kinda whatever i want since it's all different fictional planets, I still like to include accurate science to the best of my ability in some areas!]

This is why naturally-formed ice is a mineral, but ice that you make yourself (like in your freezer or something) isn't a mineral because it wasn't naturally formed. That's how I understand it, anyway.

However, this concept got me thinking: if there were tiny little pieces of organic matter, like plants, interspersed throughout a mineral, would it still be a mineral or would it change by definition of it containing some kind of organic matter? When trying to google it, I was sent to this Wikipedia page but I gotta be 100% honest, the page is really difficult for me to comprehend / is a bit more complex than I am able to understand, and I can't really figure out whether it's actually answering my question or not. I don't know whether organic minerals are non-minerals categorized similarly (like how dwarf planets are considered not to be "true" planets, but still have planet in the name) or if they are true minerals but contain organic material. It says in the article that organic minerals contain hydrogen or carbon (if i understand right), but I don't really understand how this alone makes something organic, so maybe an explanation on that would be interesting to hear, too. (I'm abysmal at chemistry so if it gets into chemistry stuff maybe try to dumb it down a bit for me,,, /nm )

If organic material being included in a mineral does still make a mineral, are fossils minerals? Or are fossils just organic matter encased in minerals? Although... most fossils aren't actually organic matter, it's all just rock but taking the form of bones and stuff, so maybe scratch that. I'm keeping it in the post in case anyone has any interesting input on it though LOL

Thanks to whoever read this far and I'm open to hearing input on anything I talked about!! I love learning about this kind of stuff, so even if you have tangentially-related facts or something, you can throw them at me in the comments, too.

Posted Aug 14, 2025, 12:34 AM UTC

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