Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A black, red-brown, or colorless mineral, essentially (Fe, Mn)(Nb, Ta)2O6, the principal ore of niobium.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The native niobate (columbate) of iron, a mineral of black color and high specific gravity, crystallizing in the orthorhombic system. It is the principal source of niobium (columbium), and generally contains also more or less of the allied element tantalum. Some varieties contain considerable manganese, and these are slightly translucent and have a dark reddish-brown color. It is found most abundantly in Connecticut, also in other localities of the United States, in Greenland, and in Bavaria. Also called
niobite .
Wiktionary
- n. mineralogy A black mineral that is a mixed iron and manganese niobate and tantalate, and is the main ore of niobium and tantalum.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Min.) A mineral of a black color, submetallic luster, and high specific specific gravity. It is a niobate (or columbate) of iron and manganese, containing tantalate of iron; -- first found in New England.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a black mineral that is an ore of niobium and tantalum
Etymologies
- columb(ium) + -ite1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“There's a crucial element in the manufacture of cell phones, laptops and the like called columbite-tantalite (or coltan).”
“Tantalum is recovered from ore minerals such as columbite and tantalite.”
“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.”
“Among these riches is coltan - columbite tantalite - a mineral highly prized for its use in a number of consumer electronic products, among other things.”
The Huffington Post: Iara Lee: Blood Gadgetry -- Why I am Going to the Congo
“Dogo Nahawa sits amid rolling hills, surrounded by former tin and columbite mines.”
“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
“Africa provides columbite-tantalite, the mineral from which most computer chips are made.”
“Solid minerals like coal, tin and columbite were mined in economic quantities and Nigeria was known to be a major world player in the production of these minerals.”
Professor Emman Osakwe « Illiteracy Articles « Articles « Literacy News
“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.”
“Rhenium does not form minerals of its own, but it does occur as a trace element in columbite, tantalite and molybdenite.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘columbite’.
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Minerals and Mineralogy
List of minerals, elements, group names and geochemistry terms encountered in the science of mineralogy. I've chosen to avoid capital letters in most examples, though a great many mineral names hon...
galkhaite, xanthoconite, pyrostilpnite, polybasite, pyrargyrite, djurleite, digenite, covellite, chalcocite, cerargirite, acanthite, aeschynite and 2608 more...
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Bite me
bite, bitewing, biteplate, backbite, checkbite, biter, exhibited, sound bite, snakebite, rat-bite fever, overbite, debited and 32 more...
Tweets
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