The discovery and formal approval of a new mineral species require the integration of chemical, crystallographic, and structural information. Among the available analytical techniques, single-crystal X-ray diffraction (hereafter SCXRD) remains the most powerful method for determining the crystal structure of crystalline materials and, in turn, of minerals. In recent decades, advances in instrumentation and analytical methods have greatly expanded the capability of SCXRD, allowing reliable structure determination even from extremely small crystals and this is impacting the number of new mineral species that every year the mineralogical community is able to discover. Here, after an experience of around
20 years with SCXRD focused on new mineral discoveries and with about 80 new minerals collaboration, I will shortly describe how we apply SCXRD technique within the complex scientific procedure of the new mineral discovery and description.
Keywords: single-crystal X-ray diffraction, Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association, new mineral species, crystal structure, structure refinement, crystallographic data.
Conflict of interest. The author declares that he has no conflicts of interest.
For citation: Nestola F. The role of single-crystal X-ray diffraction in the description of new mineral species. Mineralogiya, 2026, 12(2), 31–35. https://doi.org/10.35597/2313-545X-2026-12-2-3

Received 13.03.2026, revised 01.04.2026, accepted 10.04.2026

Fabrizio Nestola – Doctor Sci., Full Professor, University of Padova, Padova, Italy; fabrizio.nestola@unipd.it

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