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A major deposit was found at [[Shinkolobwe]] in what was then the [[Belgian Congo]] in 1915, and extraction was begun by a Belgian mining company, [[Union Minière du Haut-Katanga]], after the First World War. The first batch of uranium ore arrived in Belgium in December 1921.{{sfn|Vanthemsche|2012|p=192}} Only the richest uranium-bearing ore was exported to [[Olen, Belgium]] for the production of [[radium]] metal by [[Biraco]], a subsidiary company of Union Minière du Haut Katanga. The metal became an important export of Belgium from 1922 up until World War II.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Adams |first=A |date=January 1993 |title=The origin and early development of the Belgian radium industry |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/016041209390274L |journal=Environment International |volume=19 |issue=5 |pages=491–501 |bibcode=1993EnInt..19..491A |doi=10.1016/0160-4120(93)90274-l |issn=0160-4120|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
The high grade of the ore from the mine—65% or more [[triuranium octoxide]]) ({{chem2|U3O8}}), known as black oxide, when most sites considered 0.03% to be good—enabled the company to dominate the market. Even the 2,000 tonnes of tailings from the mine considered too poor to bother processing contained up to 20% uranium ore.{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947a|pp=S4–S5}}{{sfn|Nichols|1987|p=47}}<ref>{{cite news |date=4 August 2020 |first=Frank |last=Swain |title=The forgotten mine that built the atomic bomb |publisher=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200803-the-forgotten-mine-that-built-the-atomic-bomb |access-date=19 February 2025 |archive-date=30 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250130075136/https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200803-the-forgotten-mine-that-built-the-atomic-bomb |url-status=live }}</ref> Black oxide was mainly used as a glaze in the ceramics industry, which consumed about {{convert|150|ST|t|order=flip}} annually as a coloring agent for [[uranium tiles]] and [[uranium glass]], and in 1941 sold for USD{{convert|2.05|$/lb|2|order=flip}} (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|{{convert|2.05|/lb|order=flip|disp=number}}|1941}}/kg in {{Inflation/year|US}}). [[Uranium nitrate]] ({{chem2|UO2(NO3)2}}) was used by the photographic industry, and sold for USD{{convert|2.36|$/lb|2|order=flip}} (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|{{convert|2.36|/lb|order=flip|disp=number}}|1941}}/kg in {{Inflation/year|US}}).{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947a|pp=5.1–5.2}} The market for uranium was quite small, and by 1937, Union Minière had thirty years' supply on hand, so the mining and refining operations at Shinkolobwe were terminated.{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947a|pp=S4–S5}}
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The ore in Staten Island was transferred to the [[Seneca Army Depot|Seneca Ordnance Depot]] in [[Romulus, New York]], for safe keeping. Meanwhile, arrangements were made to ship the ore from the Belgian Congo. The Shinkolobwe mine had been closed since 1937, and had fallen into disrepair and flooded. The [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]] restored the mine, expanded the aerodromes in [[Léopoldville]] and [[Elisabethville]], improved railroads and built a port in [[Matadi]], Congo's single outlet to the sea. The army also secured the remaining ore in Shinkolobwe, which was shipped to the United States: 950 tons of approximately 70% ore and 160 tons of 20% ore.{{sfn|Williams|2016|pp=1–6}} As the port of Lobito in [[Portugal during World War II|neutral Angola]] was considered a security risk, all uranium transported by sea from the last week of January 1943 was routed through Matadi in sealed barrels marked "Special Cobalt." The uranium was first sent north by train from Shinkolobwe to the [[railhead]] at Port-Francqui (now [[Ilebo]]) on the Kasai River. From there, the sealed barrels were loaded onto barges to be transported to Léopoldville (now known as [[Kinshasa]]), where they were taken by train to Matadi.{{sfn|Williams|2016|pp=1–6}}
Sengier thought it would be safer for the ore to be shipped in {{convert|16|kn|kph|adj=on|sp=us}} freighters that could outrun the German [[U-boat]]s rather than in [[convoy]]. This was accepted, and the first shipment, of {{convert|250|LT|t|order=flip}}, departed on 10 October, followed by a second on 20 October and a third on 10 November. The shipments were managed by the [[American West African Line]], known as the [[Barber Line]], which ran a service between New York and Matadi.{{sfn|Williams|2016|pp=1–6}} Uranium for the Manhattan Project was also transported by air on the [[Pan American Airways]] [[Boeing 314 Clipper|clipper]] service. The Brazil–West Africa air link was extended to reach Leopoldville, primarily to gain access to uranium from what was then the Belgian Congo.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stanley |first=William R. |date=1994 |title=Trans-South Atlantic Air Link in World War II |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/41146247 |journal=GeoJournal |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=459–463 |doi=10.1007/BF00806430 |jstor=41146247 |bibcode=1994GeoJo..33..459S |issn=0343-2521|url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{sfn|Cotta Vaz|2018|pp=306-307}} Thereafter, ore was shipped at a rate of {{convert|400|LT|t|order=flip}} per month from December 1942 to May 1943. Two shipments were lost, one to a U-boat in late 1942, and one due to a maritime accident in early 1943. The ore arrived faster than it could be processed, so it was stored at Seneca.{{sfn|Hewlett|Anderson|1962|p=291}}{{sfn|Nichols|1987|p=47}}{{sfn|Jones|1985|p=80}} About {{convert|200|ST|t|order=flip}} was lost. Later shipments were temporarily stored at the Clinton Engineer Works. In November 1943, the [[Middlesex Sampling Plant]], a in [[Middlesex, New Jersey]], was leased for storage, sampling and assaying. The ore was received in bags and sent for refining as required.{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947a|pp=2.5–2.6}}
In August 1943, [[Winston Churchill]] and [[Franklin Roosevelt]] negotiated the [[Quebec Agreement]], which merged the British and American atomic bomb projects,{{sfn|Gowing|1964|pp=168–173}}{{sfn|Bernstein|1976|pp=216–217}} and established the [[Combined Policy Committee]] to coordinate their efforts.{{sfn|Jones|1985|p=296}} In turn, the Combined Policy Committee created the [[Combined Development Trust]] on 13 June 1944 to procure uranium and [[thorium#Occurrence|thorium ores]] on international markets.{{sfn|Helmreich|1986|p=16}} Groves was appointed its chairman, with Sir [[Charles Jocelyn Hambro|Charles Hambro]], the head of the British Raw Materials Mission in Washington, [[Frank Godbould Lee|Frank Lee]] from the [[HM Treasury|Treasury]] delegation as the British trustees, and George Bateman, a deputy minister and a member of the [[Combined Production and Resources Board]], representing Canada.{{sfn|Gowing|1964|p=301}}{{sfn|Jones|1985|p=299}} A special account not subject to the usual auditing and controls was used to hold Trust monies. Between 1944 and his resignation from the Trust at the end of 1947, Groves deposited a total of $37.5 million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|37.5|1944|r=2}} million in {{Inflation/year|US}}).{{sfn|Jones|1985|pp=90, 299–306}}
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Before the war, the only uranium metal available commercially was produced by the [[Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company]], using a photochemical process. Brown oxide was reacted with [[potassium fluoride]] in large vats on the roof of Westinghouse's plant in [[Bloomfield, New Jersey]].{{sfn|Hewlett|Anderson|1962|pp=65–66}} This produced ingots the size of a [[Quarter (United States coin)|quarter]] that were sold for around $20 per gram. [[Edward Creutz]], the head of the Metallurgical Laboratory's group responsible for fabricating the uranium, wanted a metal sphere the size of an orange for his experiments. With Westinghouse's process, this would have cost $200,000 ({{Inflation|US|200,000|1942|fmt=eq}}) and taken a year to produce.{{sfn|Compton|1956|pp=90–91}}
The hydride or "hydramet" process was developed by Peter P. Alexander, at Metal Hydrides, which used [[calcium hydride]] ({{chem2|CaH2}}) as the [[reducing agent]].{{sfn|Alexander|1943|p=3}}{{sfn|Wilhelm|1960|p=59}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Adams |first=David L. |date=March 1996 |title=Metal Hydrides and the Dawn of the Atomic Age |url=https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ed073p205 |journal=Journal of Chemical Education |language=en |volume=73 |issue=3 |pages=205 |doi=10.1021/ed073p205 |bibcode=1996JChEd..73..205A |issn=0021-9584|url-access=subscription }}</ref> By this means the Metal Hydrides plant in Beverly, Massachusetts,<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Singer-Vine |first1=Jeremy |last2=Emshwiller |first2=John R. |last3=Parmar |first3=Neil |last4=Scott |first4=Charity |title=Ventron Corporation — Beverly, Mass. — Waste Lands America's forgotten nuclear legacy |url=https://www.wsj.com/graphics/waste-lands/site/67-ventron-corporation/ |access-date=2025-04-23 |website=The Wall Street Journal}}</ref> managed to produce a few pounds of uranium metal. Unfortunately, the calcium hydride used contained unacceptable amounts of [[boron]], a neutron poison, making the metal unsuitable for use in a reactor. Some months would pass before Clement J. Rodden from the National Bureau of Standards and Union Carbide found a means to produce sufficiently pure calcium hydride.{{sfn|Hewlett|Anderson|1962|pp=65–66}}{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947e|pp=12.9–12.10}} Meal Hydrides managed to produce {{convert|41|ST|t|order=flip}} of metal by the time operations were suspended on 31 August 1943. It then started reprocessing scrap uranium metal, and produced {{convert|1,090|ST|t|order=flip}} at a cost of $0.33 per pound.{{sfn|Manhattan District|1947a|pp=10.7–10.7}}
At the [[Ames Project]] at [[Iowa State College]], Frank Spedding and [[Harley Wilhelm]] began looking for ways to create the uranium metal. At the time, it was produced in the form of a powder, and was highly [[pyrophoric]]. It could be pressed and [[sintered]] and stored in cans, but to be useful, it needed to be melted and cast. Casting presented difficulty because uranium corroded [[crucible]]s of beryllium, magnesia and graphite. To produce uranium metal, they tried reducing uranium oxide with hydrogen, but this did not work. While most of the neighboring elements on the [[periodic table]] can be reduced to form pure metal and [[slag]], uranium did not behave this way.{{sfn|Payne|1992|pp=66–67}} (At the time it was mistakenly believed that uranium belonged under [[chromium]], [[molybdenum]] and [[tungsten]] in the periodic table.{{sfn|Wilhelm|1960|p=60}}) In June 1942 they tried reducing the uranium with carbon in a hydrogen atmosphere, with only moderate success. They then tried aluminium, magnesium and calcium, all of which were unsuccessful. The following month the Ames team found that molten uranium could be cast in a graphite container.{{sfn|Payne|1992|pp=66–67}} Although graphite was known to react with uranium, this could be managed because the carbide formed only where the two touched.{{sfn|Corbett|2001|pp=15–16}}
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