Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A black to red-brown mineral, (Fe,Mn)(Ta,Nb)2O6, distinguished from columbite by the predominance of tantalum over niobium and used as an ore of both elements.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A rare mineral, occurring crystallized and massive, of an iron-black color and submetallic luster.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Min.) A heavy mineral of an iron-black color and submetallic luster. It is essentially a tantalate of iron.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun mineralogy A dark-brown mineral that is an ore of tantalum and niobium, of the chemical formula (Fe, Mn) Ta2O6.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a mineral consisting of tantalum oxide of iron and manganese that occurs with niobite or in coarse granite; an ore of tantalum

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[tantal(um) + –ite.]

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Examples

  • On Boing Boing Gadgets, this wrenching video in which Eve Ensler explains that Congolese militias use rape to enforce discipline among a slave workforce that mines columbite-tantalite ore, a common raw material for many devices.

    Boing Boing 2009

  • Among these riches is coltan - columbite tantalite - a mineral highly prized for its use in a number of consumer electronic products, among other things.

    Iara Lee: Blood Gadgetry -- Why I am Going to the Congo 2010

  • Among these riches is coltan - columbite tantalite - a mineral highly prized for its use in a number of consumer electronic products, among other things.

    Iara Lee: Blood Gadgetry -- Why I am Going to the Congo 2010

  • Overall, Congo has over half the world's cobalt, one-third of its diamonds, and three-fourths of its vital columbite-tantalite or "coltan," essential for computer chips, circuit boards, mobile phones, laptops, and other electronic devices.

    Printing: Reviewing F. William Engdahl's "Full Spectrum Dominance:" Part II 2009

  • Overall, Congo has over half the world's cobalt, one-third of its diamonds, and three-fourths of its vital columbite-tantalite or "coltan," essential for computer chips, circuit boards, mobile phones, laptops, and other electronic devices.

    Reviewing F. William Engdahl's "Full Spectrum Dominance:" Part II 2009

  • Africa provides columbite-tantalite, the mineral from which most computer chips are made.

    Missing in Action:Africa and the G20 Ajong77 2009

  • Rhenium does not form minerals of its own, but it does occur as a trace element in columbite, tantalite and molybdenite.

    Rhenium 2008

  • Industries: fish processing (mainly shrimp and Greenland halibut); gold, niobium, tantalite, uranium, iron and diamond mining; handicrafts, hides and skins, small shipyards

    Greenland 2008

  • There are deposits of gold, cassiterite (a tin ore) and coltan (columbite-tantalite) ore of a high grade which in 2000 fetched very high prices as a metal used in computer and mobile phone microchips.

    Okapi Faunal Reserve, Democratic Republic of Congo 2008

  • For example: A primary component in your beloved cell phone is “Coltan” (Columbite-tantalite), a metallic ore found mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

    Obama, McCain, March 19...yawn 2008

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