(Bio)minerals, in particular carbonates (but also others e.g. phosphates), play an essential role in shaping our understanding of the evolution of life and the Earth System, and constitute one of the most important archives of past climatic and environmental conditions. Geochemical, petrographic or crystallographic approaches have yielded new insights into the physico-chemical conditions governing their formation, including through biomineralisation pathways. These capture vital information about the environment and fluid chemistry during precipitation in the form of their specific elemental or isotopic signatures, mineralogies or micromorphologies. Over the past decades, a refined understanding of both biogenic as well as abiotic carbonates and other mineral archives, together with the development of new analytical methods and palaeo-proxies, has led to numerous breakthroughs in palaeoclimate research. However, the quality and reliability of the climatic and environmental information we extract from these records depends, critically, on careful proxy calibrations and the evaluation of secondary controls such as kinetic or vital effects and diagenetic influences. This session seeks contributions from sedimentology, geochemistry, (palaeo)biology, and mineralogy that utilise carbonate or other relevant (bio)minerals to improve our understanding of past environmental conditions over a broad range of timescales, including (but not limited to) microbialites, mollusc shells, coral skeletons or foraminifera. We welcome experimental or theoretical studies dealing with culturing of calcifying organisms, synthetic mineral precipitation, transformation or alteration processes, elemental partitioning or isotopic fractionation (to give but a few examples). The aim of this session is to synthesize recent progress on the investigation as well as application of these important archives, and to showcase methodological advances that will help us to build a more comprehensive understanding of past global changes.