mineralize

Verb

mineralize (third-person singular simple present mineralizes, present participle mineralizing, simple past and past participle mineralized)

1. (transitive) To convert to a mineral; to petrify.
   • in all these cases , the bones found in caverns are never mineralised, but simply in the state of grave bones more or less decayed or incrusted by stalagmite ; and have no farther connexion with the rocks themselves1823, William Buckland, Reliquiæ Diluvianæ
2. (transitive) To impregnate with minerals.
   • mineralized water
3. (intransitive) To mineralogize; to collect and study minerals.
   • He was a senior when he asked Barnes if he ever went "mineralizing," referred admiringly to Bowdoin's Professor Cleaveland, and expressed a wish to "give a good knock about the rocks in Maine."1978, Eleanor Marguerite Tilton, Amiable Autocrat: A Biography of Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes