Tantalum mining

thumb|upright|right|A piece of columbite–tantalite, size 6.0 × 2.5 × 2.1 cm Coltan (short for columbite–tantalite 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 name columbium), and the tantalum-dominant mineral is tantalite.