by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:
Did you know that a little town in the mountains of North Carolina is the primary worldwide producer of a substance that makes our modern high tech way of life possible? Without the ultra-pure natural quartz that comes from Spruce Pine, North Carolina we would not have the ultra-sophisticated electronic gadgets that we enjoy so much and the global economy would collapse. So is it just a coincidence that Spruce Pine was absolutely devastated by Hurricane Helene?
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The two facilities that produce this ultra-pure natural quartz in Spruce Pine are both shut down at this point…
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 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.
Hopefully these facilities will be able to open again before the end of the year, because they are absolutely critical to the global economy.
According to ABC News, it is estimated that somewhere between 70 percent and 90 percent of all crucibles that are used to make silicon chips worldwide are made out of natural quartz from Spruce Pine…
“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.”
An estimated 70-90% of the crucibles used worldwide are made from Spruce Pine quartz, he said.
Without this natural quartz from Spruce Pine, our way of life would change dramatically.
The following comes from a Wired article entitled “The Ultra-Pure, Super-Secret Sand That Makes Your Phone Possible”…
The wooded mountains surrounding it, though, are rich in all kinds of desirable rocks, some valued for their industrial uses, some for their pure prettiness. But it’s the mineral in Glover’s bag—snowy white grains, soft as powdered sugar—that is by far the most important these days. It’s quartz, but not just any quartz. Spruce Pine, it turns out, is the source of the purest natural quartz—a species of pristine sand—ever found on Earth. This ultra‑elite deposit of silicon dioxide particles plays a key role in manufacturing the silicon used to make computer chips. In fact, there’s an excellent chance the chip that makes your laptop or cell phone work was made using sand from this obscure Appalachian backwater. “It’s a billion‑dollar industry here,” Glover says with a hooting laugh. “Can’t tell by driving through here. You’d never know it.”
This is a really big deal.
If the facilities in Spruce Pine are offline for an extended period of time, the entire globe will feel it.
Just consider what happened when a fire caused a quartz mine in Spruce Pine to shut down for a brief period of time in 2008…
In 2008, a fire in Spruce Pine forced a local quartz mine to halt production, which “all but shut off the supply of high-purity quartz to the world market, sending shivers through the industry.” That fire impacted only one plant—the Unimin Corporation Quartz/Feldspar Plant, which has since been acquired by Sibelco—and its impacts were still felt industry wide. Today, demand for semiconductors is much higher than what it was in 2008 as they’re used to power newer technologies like artificial intelligence and 5G connectivity.
Needless to say, what we are facing is far worse than the brief interruption that occurred in 2008.
The mountains of North Carolina are also very important to the lithium industry.
According to CBNC, a mining operation at Kings Mountain “could produce enough material to manufacture 1.2 million electric vehicles annually”…
Kings Mountain could produce enough material to manufacture 1.2 million electric vehicles annually. The mine sits on one of the world’s richest deposits of spodumene ore, a source of lithium. There is currently only one operational lithium mine in the U.S. in Silver Peak, Nevada, which is owned by Albemarle.
Albemarle does not have a precise date for when Kings Mountain will become operational, Norris said. The company is preparing to start the permitting process, which will take two years to complete. Construction will be a multiyear undertaking before the mine is operational, according to the company.
Despite local opposition, Albemarle has been aggressively pushing forward with this project.
And it turns out that Albemarle was recently given a 90 million dollar grant by the Biden administration…
The Biden administration has made setting up a battery supply chain, supported by domestic lithium production and processing, a top priority to end dependence on China, which dominates the global market. Albemarle was awarded a $90 million grant from the Defense Department to support domestic mining, which the company is using to help reopen Kings Mountain.
90 million dollars is a lot of money.
So there is a lot riding on the success of this project.
Interestingly, BlackRock purchased more than 2 million shares of Albemarle less than 2 months ago…
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