About the IMA

The IMA is the world's largest organization dedicated to promoting mineralogy. It brings together 36 national mineralogical societies.
The IMA’s mission is to foster international cooperation in the field of mineralogy. It fulfills this mission through its commissions and working groups, which bring together scientists to coordinate activities and develop common standards in various subdisciplines of mineralogy. One of its most important missions is to oversee the nomenclature and classification of minerals through the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature, and Classification (CNMNC).
The Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature, and Classification (IMA-CM) is the world’s leading authority on mineral names and nomenclature (including naming of mineral groups). Any proposed new mineral must be approved by this commission before it is published.
The IMA-CM was established to bring together the mineralogy departments of museums around the world. The finest mineral specimens, as well as those described for the first time, are often housed in museums, and the history of mineralogy is closely linked to that of museum mineralogy collections. This commission maintains the global list of holotypes. This list is updated regularly. Here we present the latest version of this:

CATALOG OF TYPE MINERAL SPECIMENS (CTMS).

The Actual Chair of CTMS Subcommission since 2025 is :
Dr Simon Philippo, MNHNL-Naturmusée, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
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Former CTMS chairman (2006-2025)
Dr Nicolas Meisser, MGL-Musée de géologie, UNIL, Lausanne, Switzerland

Former CTMS chairman until 2006
Hans-Anton Stalder (†), NMBE, Bern, Switzerland

Former contributor and data compilation
Jacques Lapaire, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland (2017-2025)
Alexander R. Hölzel (†), Ober Olm, Germany
Anthony R. Kampf, NHM Los Angeles, USA