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Common rock-forming and accessory minerals in marbles from various localities in Slovenia were studied using scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS). Minerals and their chemical composition were identified in order to verify the variability of mineral assemblages in marbles from different localities in Slovenia. The analysis showed that marbles from Košenjak are the most mineralogically diverse, followed by Pohorje and finally Strojna marbles. Common rock-forming minerals calcite and dolomite are more abundant in Pohorje marbles where calcite contains higher levels of magnesium but no strontium and iron as compared with Strojna and Košenjak marbles. Accessory minerals like quartz, mica, titanite, apatite, rutile, zircon, chlorite group minerals, kaolinite and iron oxides/hydroxides were found in marbles from all localities. Clinopyroxene, amphibole, epidote and smectite group minerals, talc, tungsten-bearing ilmenorutile, psilomelane and bismuth oxides/carbonates, were observed only in marbles from Pohorje, while tourmaline and allanite group minerals, thorite or huttonite, chalcopyrite and synchysite group minerals were detected in marbles from Košenjak and Strojna. Variations in mineral assemblages in marbles from different locations are likely a consequence of different sedimentary environment and conditions and metamorphic grade of marble. These differences indicate that marbles from Košenjak and Strojna are genetically different from those from Pohorje and probably reflect mineral composition of the protolith. Thus, they enable rough distinction between more distant locations, but not between individual sub-localities.

In the Pohorje Mts, mostly outcrops of calcite marble can be found, which in places turn into dolomite marbles.The protolith carbonate rocks contained also detritical minerals, which remained unchanged or formed new mineralsduring metamorphosis. Minerals in the Pohorje marbles that can be seen as crystals with the naked eye or 10x magnifyingloupe and with binocular microscope were investigated. With the aid of Raman microspectroscopy, SEM-EDSanalysis and on the basis of morphological characteristics, the presence of 17 different minerals or group of mineralswas confirmed. The most numerous and also the most significant were, apart from calcite, tremolite, diopside, grossularand epidote. For the first time, vesuvianite and scapolite were described in the Pohorje Mts. Particularly rich, as faras crystal faces are concerned, were the crystals of quartz that contained needle-like amphiboles. Other minerals thatwell supplemented the mineral paragenesis were different minerals of mica and chlorite group, feldspars, magnetite,titanite, pyrite and graphite. The determined mineral association revealed the mineral diversity of Pohorje marbles,offering us a new challenge for the investigation of the characteristics and conditions during the origin of this noblerock, which was highly esteemed already by the Romans, while today it is regaining its value and recognisability.