Cobalt vs. Coltan

Cobaltnoun

A chemical element (symbol Co) with an atomic number of 27: a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal.

Cobaltnoun

Cobalt blue.

Cobaltnoun

A tough, lustrous, reddish white metal of the iron group, not easily fusible, and somewhat magnetic. Atomic weight 59.1. Symbol Co.

Cobaltnoun

A commercial name of a crude arsenic used as fly poison.

Cobaltnoun

a hard ferromagnetic silver-white bivalent or trivalent metallic element; a trace element in plant and animal nutrition

Cobalt

Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. Like nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron.

Coltannoun

A metallic ore, (Fe,Mn)(Ta,Nb)2O6, from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted.

Coltannoun

a valuable black mineral combining niobite and tantalite; used in cell phones and computer chips

Coltan

Coltan (short for columbite–tantalites and known industrially as tantalite) is a dull black metallic ore from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted. The niobium-dominant mineral in coltan is columbite (after niobium's original American name columbium), and the tantalum-dominant mineral is the tantalite.Tantalum from coltan is used to manufacture tantalum capacitors which are used for mobile phones, personal computers, automotive electronics, and cameras.