Minerals.net was started in 1996 by Hershel Friedman as an interactive and educational guide to rocks, minerals, gemstones, and jewelry. It was one of the first of its kind providing detailed information of these topics in an interactive setting. It contains research pages of hundreds of minerals, indexed and categorized, as well as various documents on mineral topics. The site had been growing steadily since its inception, and had increased in search engine rankings to become one of the top sites under both keywords "minerals" and "gemstones". The site currently has over 130,000 visitors per month.

A determination to redesign the website and update it to the latest in web technology was initiated in 2007 after several years of inactivity. Hershel has partnered with Joseph Haas to redevelop the site with the latest design and programming standards, and will continue to add and update information on the website.

Our goal is to continue providing information in an interactive and user-friendly form. We hope to provide information on all well-known minerals and gemstones, as well as other less-known favorites of the author. We hope to always provide this as a free online service, and maintain our costs by advertising.

Hershel Friedman has been collecting minerals since he was a young child. His knowlege of minerals and gemstones was gained from reading and researching, and he has many years of field experience. Hershel graduated from Ramapo College of New Jersey with a bachelors in Information Systems. He is the President and founder of Radial Web, a website design and development firm in the New York metro area. Hershel started Minerals.net as a way to catalog the specimens in his own collection. This spread to the idea if providing extensive information and placing it online for public education.

Information is the copyright of Hershel Friedman (or of others, and used with their permission). Use of any material on this website for educational purposes does not require our permission, provided it will not be published. Most of our photos are from external sources and require copyright permission from their respected copyright holders. Use of the information for any other purpose will require our explicit permission from Hershel Friedman, the copyright holder.

The material on this website was created for use as a reference, for educational use, and for home use. Distribution, alteration, or usage in a commercial manner is a violation of the copyright laws and is prohibited. To obtain permission for usage, you must contact Hershel Friedman, the copyright holder.

We value your ideas and input on ways to improve this website. We will take all comments into consideration. All comments and suggestions can be made from our email contact form.

We greatly appreciate those who report errors, misspelled words, broken links, and any incomplete or incorrect information. If you report something legitimate, your name will be put down on our credits section below upon request.

To report an error, please use our contact form or report it in the forum.

Website Founder and Designer
Hershel Friedman

Content Research and Upkeep
Hershel Friedman

Senior Developer
Joseph Haas

Editor
Herman Friedman

Special Thanks to:
Avigael Friedman - For your constant support.
Henry Oberman - For assistance with gemstone content and jewelry photos.
Svetlana Zelikovich - For exceptional design and printwork.
Kamran Paracha - For his dedicated and effective web programming.
John Betts - For providing outstanding mineral images.
Ron Nash - For the gemstone photos and gemstone resources.
Marc Sarosi - For the gemstone photos.

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Special Thanks to:
Harriet Friedman, David Koegel, Mordy Gilden, Jolyon Ralph, Allan W. Eckert, Eric Stanchich, and Kevin Canning.

Thanks to these Critequers:
Mark Kurzmann, Sol Werczberger, Robert Frankel, Donna M. Smillie, Pam Shorey, Pat Greenfield, Livia Molnar-Hamvas, Bernhardt Saini-Eidukat, Cherie Haskins, Michael Beane, Craig White, Allan W. Eckert, Sean Sharp, Koreen Corbett, Rick Harpin, Forrest Becker, Tara Steckel, Cindy Thomas, Jen Henberry, Marion Podolski, Tanya Tarshis, Lorenz Hemmelmayr, Stephen Bornchen, Manuel Moreno, and J. Roger Mitchell.