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North Carolina town that produces quartz needed for tech products is devastated by Helene –
https://apnews.com/article/north-carolina-quartz-hurricane-57153eaba12ba9dcb87bf618d72364ec – Updated 2:48 PM MDT, October 2, 2024
“SPRUCE PINE, N.C. (AP) — Two North Carolina facilities that manufacture the high-purity quartz used for making semiconductors, solar panels and fiber-optic cables have been shut down by Hurricane Helene with no reopening date in sight.”
“Sibelco (based in Antwerp, Belgium) and The Quartz Corp both shut down operations in the Appalachian town of Spruce Pine on Thursday ahead of the storm that swept away whole communities in the western part of the state and across the border in East Tennessee. The town is home to mines that produce some of the world’s highest quality quartz.”
Vince Beiser, author of “The World in a Grain,” said in an email:
“To make silicon chips, you need to first melt down a highly-purified material called polysilicon. That can only be done in crucibles that are themselves made of a material so pure it will not react chemically with the polysilicon and is also able to withstand enormous heat,” he said. “The best material for those crucibles is ultra-pure quartz. Spruce Pine is the source of the purest natural quartz ever found on Earth.”
