very small breakthrough finds in research yesterday:

- Prior to WWII there were exactly two industrial tantalum powder and products manufacturers, one in the USA and one in Germany and most of it came from Australia

- By the end of the war, the supply chain had almost entirely shifted to Belgian Congo and the govt had built that one US manufacturer a $4.71 million facility to expand their production

- As of 1942, all of GE's fused quartz feedstock came from Brazil