The IMA is the only truly international organisation promoting mineralogy, which is one of the oldest branches of Science.

Today it plays a vital role in human welfare, underpinning metalliferous mining, exploitation of industrial minerals, petroleum exploration and extraction, waste disposal, the remediation of pollution, and Soil Science.
Mineral surfaces stand at the interface between the atmosphere, the biosphere and the solid Earth. They are crucial to the understanding of climate and global change.Mineralogy is fundamental to our knowledge of the chemistry, mode of formation and age of rocks, including extraterrestrial materials which give us clues for the origin of the Solar System and the likelihood of life on other planets.

Experimental Mineralogy, which strongly overlaps Materials Science, allows us to deduce the nature of the deepest, most inaccessible, parts of the Earth.