Lots of excellent information in this thread

I have to +1 Bart on his response to the whole "the best are mined/produced first" comment.

Since coticules ARE naturally produced layers of rock, there is NO way a comment like that could be proven. Even if there was a "best" section of coticule, there's absolutely no way, unless you ARE God, or whichever almight deity you may believe in. Who knows what lies hundreds, even thousands of feed below the areas they are mining now?

And as far as the coticule being an endangered rock, so to speak, I'm sure there is many other places, as Bart said, where coticule still exists, and was mined in the past.

Who's to say that Bart (or any of us for that matter) might inherit/amass a fortune sometime and purchase some land known to contain coticule, and decide to "harvest" those veins?

True, just like any precious natural resource, there is only so much of it in the earth, but I don't think we'll see the end of it anytime soon, as long as it is not squandered.

Just a few of my thoughts