Columbite-Tantalite
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This is a very fine, nearly tabular crystal of "columbite-tantalite" from ANY location but it happens to be from the extremely old and important Morefield Mine in Virginia. These are quite rare from here and this is a well-formed crystal with well-defined faces and edges, at least on the top half. The crystal is a submetallic black with a brown tint. There is a small, 1 cm, relatively well-formed, sidecar crystal on the right side and back shows interleaved blades of albite and columbite-tantalite. I have seen several of these and they have all been labeled as "columbite-tantalite" so I don't think any analyses have been performed that I'm aware of to distinguish between iron and manganese or columbite vs. tantalite end-members. An excellent example for the locality! Bought from C. Carter Rich 4/11/2006 from Richard Hauck (and you can see what was paid even back then, quite happily!). Hauck bought it from Neal Yedlin (Neal was a famous micromounter later in life, but for decades bought and maintained an important collection of USA classics as well).
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