"I come to Bury Obama, Not to Praise Him."

[MineralMan]

60. I have no idea. I suppose I had a couple dozen

columbite/tantalite specimens in my stock over the time I was in business. All of them were from old collections, and I found them uninteresting. Most came from Brazil and Canada, and showed poor crystal forms. Cheap specimens, of interest to only a few collectors. Almost all were collected in the 1940s and 1950s, and were from old collections.

None came from any commercial mining operations, which are rarely interested in preserving specimens. Instead, they were collected in the field by specimen collectors.

Very, very few mineral specimens come from commercial mines. Most come from non-mining collection by people interested in mineralogy. Industrial mining is not of interest to me now, and it wasn't then.

I'm sure you have some point in mind, but commercial mining is not my area. I could go look it up, I suppose, but it's not interesting to me.