OK ~ 5437, thanks! Looks sadly much as though you're right.

Haven't trawled through all the comments but this one, seems to get to the root of the problem:

Kilroy_was_here

November 1, 2011

Black mica is indeed known as biotite, but it is not a rock. It is a mineral, and there is no such thing as a “rock that contains the most minerals”, since rocks are defined even in 8th-grade earth science textbooks as aggregates of minerals.

So Dr. Shimanishi’s ability to extract minerals from “black mica rocks” is right on par with my ability to extract rocks from …rocks.

I am also curious as to how one might extract much magnesium sulfate from a mineral that contains plenty of magnesium but little sulfate (biotite: K(Mg,Fe)3AlSi3O10(OH)2, although it is possible for minor amounts of sulfate to occur in the hydroxyl site. Very, very minor amounts.)

Oh dear! So much for that paticular "antidote"!

Sorry folks.

IntegRatoR