The oldest classification of minerals was based on their practical use, and minerals were divided into categories such as gemstones, pigments, ores, and others. The earliest classification based on external characteristics and some physical properties of minerals, such as color, solubility, malleability, and fracture, was introduced in the 8th century by the Arab physician, philosopher, and alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyam, better known as Geber. This classification was later expanded and refined by Avicenna in the 10th century, Agricola in the 15th century, and Werner in the 18th century. In 1735, Carl von Linné published the book Systema Naturae, in which he presented a new classification of nature into three kingdoms: Regnum animale - the kingdom of animals, Regnum vegetabile - the kingdom of plants, and Regnum lapideum - the kingdom of stones. While this classification of living organisms was accepted, making Linné the founder of the systematics of living beings, his attempt to classify minerals using a similar hierarchical system based on their shape was not successful.

The first chemical classification of minerals was established in the 18th century by Swedish chemist and mineralogist Torbern Olof Bergmann, but his attempt was premature because many chemical elements had not yet been discovered at the time. Today's systematics or classification of minerals is based on Berzelius' chemical classification, which was later elaborated upon by the German mineralogist Karl Hugo Strunz, after the discovery of X-rays, which allowed for the exploration of the internal structure of minerals. As the curator of the Mineralogical Museum at the Friedrich-Wilhelms University, now Humboldt University in Berlin, Strunz classified museum mineral collections based on crystallographic chemical properties, introducing a chemical-structural classification of minerals. As a result of this extensive work, he published the work Mineralogische Tabellen in 1941. In addition to Strunz's system, the Dana system of mineral classification, which also relies on the chemical-structural characteristics of minerals, is used in mineralogy.

According to this principle, minerals are divided into classes based on the dominant anion or anion group. Minerals that have the same dominant anion or anion group are much more similar to each other than minerals that contain the same dominant cation. Furthermore, minerals with the same anion often occur together in similar geological environments. Today, the systematics or classification of minerals is based not only on their chemical properties but also on their structural relationships. Based on this, all known minerals are divided into the following classes: