`Rhodesian chrome embargo` / `Rhodesian chromite embargo and laundering`

Political externality. The world's best chrome ore subjected to embargo during the civil war. Tom notes it's "a lot easier to detect Rhodesian chrome than blood diamonds" — visual identification rather than impurity analysis.

Before that, about the time you were born, there was Rhodesian chrome. Anybody heard of Rhodesia? Rhodesia was an east African nation just north of South Africa, and they have the world's best chrome ore. It's so good you can't reproduce it. It's the most economical. But they were having a civil war in Rhodesia, and the rest of the world was trying to pressure them, just like we're trying to pressure Syria right now because of their civil war. So they put an embargo on Rhodesian chrome. It's a lot easier to detect Rhodesian chrome than it is blood diamonds. Blood diamonds you've got to go in with some pretty sophisticated instrument. Rhodesian chrome you can sort of look at.