  Negative results obtained in AMS searches by Dellinger et al. on mostly
unrefined ores have led them to conclude that the very heavy long-lived species
found in chemically processed samples with ICP-SFMS by Marinov et al. are
artifacts. We argue that it may not be surprising that results obtained from
small random samplings of inhomogeneous natural minerals would contrast with
concentrations found in homogeneous materials extracted from large quantities
of ore. We also point out that it is possible that the groups of counts at
masses 296 and 294 seen by Dellinger et al. could be, within experimental
uncertainties, due to $^{296}$Rg and $^{294}$eka-Bi in long-lived isomeric
states. In such case, the experiments of Dellinger et al. lend support to the
experiments of Marinov et al.
