I would have expected any smelting/extraction to be on the "legal" side of the fence — usually, articles about cat theft suggest they're sold to unscrupulous bu

I would have expected any smelting/extraction to be on the "legal" side of the fence — usually, articles about cat theft suggest they're sold to unscrupulous but legal scrap dealers, who can mix the stolen converters in with their legitimate stream of parts sawn off of junked cars. (It also, as a practical matter, seems easier to do that than to convince manufacturers to buy odd batches of rare metals from your illegal smelter.)