German

Noun

Coltan n ‎(genitive Coltans, plural Coltane)

1. (mineralogy) coltan

Declension

English

Noun

coltan ‎(plural coltans)

1. A metallic ore from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted.
   • 2014, Adam Schatz, ‘Ça va un peu’, London Review of Books, vol. 36 no. 20:

     Consider your mobile phone. Before it was assembled in a Chinese factory, the coltan in its capacitors may have been dug by miners in the Eastern Congo, where millions have died in a series of wars over ‘conflict minerals’, though we give this no more thought than previous generations of Westerners gave to the Congolese origins of the ivory in their piano keys, the rubber in their tyres, the copper in their bullet casings or the uranium in their bombs.

Synonyms

• columbite-tantalite

Anagrams

• locant

Spanish

Noun

coltan m ‎(uncountable)

1. coltan