There's a crucial element in the manufacture of cell phones, laptops and the like called columbite-tantalite (or coltan).    From Wordnik.com.  [Latest Articles] Reference

Tantalum is recovered from ore minerals such as columbite and tantalite.    From Wordnik.com.  [Tantalum] Reference

His conversation contained no mention of columbite-tantalite (a.k.a. "coltan").    From Wordnik.com.  [America: The Land of Denial] Reference

Dogo Nahawa sits amid rolling hills, surrounded by former tin and columbite mines.    From Wordnik.com.  [Massacres Shake Uneasy Nigeria] Reference

They discovered rhenium as a trace element in platinum ores and the mineral columbite.    From Wordnik.com.  [Rhenium] Reference

Africa provides columbite-tantalite, the mineral from which most computer chips are made.    From Wordnik.com.  [Missing in Action:Africa and the G20] Reference

Rhenium does not form minerals of its own, but it does occur as a trace element in columbite, tantalite and molybdenite.    From Wordnik.com.  [Rhenium] Reference

Among these riches is coltan - columbite tantalite - a mineral highly prized for its use in a number of consumer electronic products, among other things.    From Wordnik.com.  [Iara Lee: Blood Gadgetry -- Why I am Going to the Congo] Reference

One of the most profitable minerals in Congo is coltan, a natural alloy of columbite and tantalum, used to manufacture mobile phones, avionics and computer games.    From Wordnik.com.  [ANC Daily News Briefing] Reference

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.    From Wordnik.com.  [Professor Emman Osakwe « Illiteracy Articles « Articles « Literacy News] Reference

Coltan - short for columbite-tantalite - sells at dlrs 50 per kilogram on the international market and is used in the manufacture of computer chips and other high-tech gadgets.    From Wordnik.com.  [ANC Daily News Briefing] Reference

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.    From Wordnik.com.  [Okapi Faunal Reserve, Democratic Republic of Congo] Reference

Global demand for columbite-tantalite (a.k.a. "coltan"), a common cell phone component, is fueling war and environmental destruction in the Democratic Republic of Congo ... but leftists aren't supposed to acknowledge their complicity.    From Wordnik.com.  [No innocent bystanders in America] Reference

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.    From Wordnik.com.  [Reviewing F. William Engdahl's "Full Spectrum Dominance:" Part II] Reference

It's a industry term for columbite-tantalum concentrate.    From Wordnik.com.  [Lounge of the Lab Lemming] Reference

Fersmite and columbite are the niobium enriched minerals.    From Wordnik.com.  [Marketwire - Breaking News Releases] Reference

(columbite-tantalite) traders, and Alfred Rwigema and Ronald.    From Wordnik.com.  [ANC Daily News Briefing] Reference

The region has a history of tin and columbite mining - abandoned mines mark the landscape.    From Wordnik.com.  [BBC News - Home] Reference

The Kaatiala reservation covers a quarry which produced 18 tonnes of beryl, 5 tonnes of columbite and.    From Wordnik.com.  [Marketwire - Breaking News Releases] Reference

Coltan (columbite tantalite), when refined to tantalum, is needed in order to manufacture capacitors.    From Wordnik.com.  [Thomas Paine's Corner] Reference

Conflict minerals are defined as gold, cassiterite, wolframite and columbite-tantalite, also called coltan.    From Wordnik.com.  [SEC proposes new mining, minerals rules - Yahoo! Finance] Reference

That includes trace amounts of exotic metals like columbite-tantalite, often mined in war-torn regions of Africa.    From Wordnik.com.  [All Today's News - Sightline Daily] Reference

They are probably present in the form of columbite, a niobate of iron and manganese; and tantalite, a tantalate of the same metals.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Text-book of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines.] Reference

He was working for the British Museum and analyzed a sample of the mineral columbite when he identified a previously unknown element he called columbium.    From Wordnik.com.  [About.com Chemistry] Reference

She also told the gathering, that Nigeria was a major exporter of columbite and tantalite and also blessed with substantial wolfram and lead / zinc sulphite production.    From Wordnik.com.  [Vanguard News] Reference

One of the deposits is a natural metallic ore, columbite-tantalite, or coltan, that, when refined, stores an electric charge in a capacitor used in common electronic devices.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Agonist - thoughtful, global, timely] Reference

In many parts of the provinces of North and South Kivu, armed groups and the Congolese national army control the trade in cassiterite (tin ore), gold, columbite-tantalite (coltan), wolframite (a source of tungsten) and other minerals.    From Wordnik.com.  [AllAfrica News: Latest] Reference

The Kaatiala reservation covers a quarry which produced 18 tonnes of beryl, 5 tonnes of columbite and 190,000 tonnes of rare mineral calcium feldspar, according to the information obtained from the Geological Survey of Finland ( "GTK").    From Wordnik.com.  [The Earth Times Online Newspaper] Reference

NY Newswire on Huffington Post today that introduces the first motive factor in the decade long war that's ravaging the Congo: the country's incredible mineral wealth, especially columbite-tantalite, or coltan, which is used in millions of cell phones.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Agonist - thoughtful, global, timely] Reference

“The Democratic Republic of Congo has the world’s purest and largest deposits of strategic minerals, including gold, coltan, niobium, cobalt, heterogenite and columbite.    From Wordnik.com.  [General Nkunda Makes His Move in Virunga: Perhaps a Good Thing?] Reference

You have coltan, or columbite-tantalite.    From Wordnik.com.  [MyAntiwar.org] Reference

(up to 1. 3%), hydroxylapatite (up to 1. 2%), columbite (up to 0. 6%), monazite - (Ce) (up to.    From Wordnik.com.  [Marketwire - Breaking News Releases] Reference

(columbite-tantalite).    From Wordnik.com.  [StrategyPage.com] Reference

Natural resources: petroleum, tin, columbite, iron ore, coal, limestone, lead, zinc, natural gas.    From Wordnik.com.  [The 1999 CIA Factbook] Reference

Nigeria natural gas, petroleum, tin, columbite, iron ore, coal, limestone, lead, zinc, arable land.    From Wordnik.com.  [The 2004 CIA World Factbook] Reference

Nigeria: natural gas, petroleum, tin, columbite, iron ore, coal, limestone, lead, zinc, arable land.    From Wordnik.com.  [The 2001 CIA World Factbook] Reference

Natural resources: natural gas, petroleum, tin, columbite, iron ore, coal, limestone, lead, zinc, arable land.    From Wordnik.com.  [The 2004 CIA World Factbook] Reference

Natural resources: Oil and natural gas (37% of 2006 GDP), tin, columbite, iron ore, coal, limestone, lead, zinc.    From Wordnik.com.  [NZ On Screen] Reference

Natural resources: Oil and natural gas (37\% of 2006 GDP), tin, columbite, iron ore, coal, limestone, lead, zinc.    From Wordnik.com. Reference