Dear colleagues, A Japanese friend of mine, who has been a dedicated collector for several years, recently went on a field trip to the pegmatites in the Ishikawa Town area, and discovered a natural, black substance that is radioactive and has the following major elements (as found by XRF, analysis done by a professional company, on a fresh surface): Elem wt.% at. (mol.)% 3σ Nb 45.6 51,7 0.67 U 26.0 11.5 0.66 Ta 09.4 05.5 0.38 Mn 08.0 15.4 0.42 Fe 03.4 06.5 0.26 Assuming the material is homogenous, for a substance with such a composition, there is no mineral known. Even if the substance is heterogeneous, no Mn-dominant mineral has (so far) been reported in the area. Therefore I suggested he take this to a mineralogist who would be interested in researching this material. Since he is a university student near Tokio, Japan, it would be handy if a mineralogist from that city would be interested. But he does not know any local professional mineralogists, and neither do I. Since other mineralogists might be interested as well, I suggested sending this message to the entire MSA list. Photos of the material as well as the full XRF-analysis results are available for those interested. We look forward to hearing from you! Cheers, Herwig & Kõta (Belgium & Japan)