Despite the abundance of silicons in the Earth's crust, not all minerals contain silicon. The atoms of many metals, which tend to lose electrons and become positively charged, like to bond with other atoms or groups of atoms that tend to gain atoms and become negatively charged. For example, atoms of sodium, a metal, and chlorine, a non-metal, pair up in equal numbers to form sodium chloride, also known as halite (or common table salt). Other important types of non-silicate minerals include carbonates, with metals bonded to groups of carbon and oxygen atoms; oxides, with metals joined to oxygen alone; sulfides, which consist of metal and sulfur atoms; and sulfates, in which groups of sulfur and oxygen atoms are joined with metal atoms.

Pegmatites are extremely coarse-grained intrusive igneous rocks, containing crystals that are both large (at least 5 cm or 2 inches across) and packed closely together. Pegmatites crystallize during the final stages of granite formation. The same silicate minerals that form granite - quartz, feldspar, and mica - generally make up the bulk of pegmatites, too, but the individual minerals in pegmatites can be many centimeters or even several meters in diameter. Some pegmatites also contain less common minerals, such as garnet, albite, lepidolite, beryl, and fluorite. Geologists and miners sometimes find beautiful, gemstone-quality crystals of topaz, beryl (aquamarine), rose quartz, smoky quartz, and other minerals within pegmatites.