The sludge inside the tank contains chunks of solids, many common metals including aluminum, nickel, lead, silver, copper, titanium, and zinc and other common elements.

FORBES: What's Inside The Suspect Nuclear Waste Tank At Hanford?

Hoarding by Chinese suppliers is common across base metals.

FORBES: China's Gold Imports: Grain Of Salt, Please

Representatives of large, sophisticated companies that have been actively working to implement the expected requirements spoke eloquently at an October 2011 SEC Roundtable discussion of the complexity of their supply chains and the difficulty in obtaining solid information from their upstream suppliers on the origins of common, commodity metals like tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold in purchased products and components.

FORBES: Conflict Minerals Rule Imposes Big Burdens On Manufacturers