Cave minerals are secondary minerals formed inside a cave resulting from one or several of the following processes: reprecipitation of the bedrock, supersaturation of solutions, dehydration, biogenic processes (or human activity), hydrothermal processes, hypergenic processes (weathering or metasomatoze), reaction of karst solutions with minerals of non-karstic bedrock, or by eruptive processes (fumarolic or magmatic) due to crystallization of volcanic gases or their reactions with minerals or solutions.

Most speleothems (dripstones, including stalagmites and stalactites) are formed by hydrocarbonate reprecipitation of carbonate bedrock. Groundwater saturated with carbonate dioxide dissolves calcium carbonate (CaCO₃ from the bedrock and reprecipitates it inside the cave when carbonate dioxide volatilizes. Most caves are developed in limestone or marble, so CaCO₃ forms most speleothems. Ninety-five percent of all speleothems are formed by calcite, 2–3% by aragonite (the second polymorphic form of CaCO₃) and less than 2% are formed by the rest...