Mineral Colour Plates are small thumbnail images of minerals, as well as synthetic compounds and chemical elements, with articles that can be found in the MIROFOSS database. The following table shows all of the SULFATE GROUP minerals found in MIROFOSS organized vertically by colour. Certain minerals may appear in multiple colour categories if the mineral can be found in more then one colour range. Clicking on a mineral plate image will bring you to the corresponding MIROFOSS article. Please note this page may take a while to load on slower computers or with slower internet connections.

The class of minerals known as sulfates are a delicate group of minerals that occur near the surface of the Earth is sedimentary rock. Sulfate minerals all include the sulfate ion within their structure. Sulfates trend to form where there is oxygen and water in places such as evaporite depositional environments, as gangue minerals in hydrothermal veins and as secondary minerals in the oxidizing zone of sulfide mineral deposits. There are many types of bacteria that make their living by reducing sulfate to sulfide where oxygen is absent. Gypsum is by far the most common sulfate mineral. The chromate and manganate minerals have a similar structure and are often included with the sulfates in mineral classification systems. Sulfate minerals can be further broken down into the following classes: Selenates, Tellurates, Chromates, Molybdates, and Tungstates. The following table lists, by colour, all of the sulfate minerals which can be found in the MIROFOSS database.