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According to one of my favorite references, the softest mineral is carlinite (http://webmineral.com/determin/non-metallic_minerals_by_hardness.shtml). As can be seen there quite a few minerals that are softer than talc. However, talc is the softest of the “common” minerals. I had not even heard of any of the softer minerals until I click on the link of that list.
