A rare mineral composed of yttrium and niobium oxides, usually black or brown, found in pegmatite deposits.
Named after Robert Ferguson, a Scottish mineralogist, with the standard mineral suffix '-ite,' following the convention of naming minerals after their discoverers or collectors.
Fergusonite was mined heavily during the nuclear age because it contains thorium—a radioactive element—making this elegant black crystal part of 20th-century atomic history, though most people never knew it.
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