It’s interesting that the North Carolina quartz deposits are mined by two foreign interests. That despite the size of the US there was no company that could do it as economically as the Belgians and Norwegians. Presumably due to lack of expertise?
This is similar to the "rare earths" myths floating around. Its a prepper story for sure.
"Rare Earths" are literally everywhere but require large open mines which are not environmentally acceptable and cost effective in the US (depending). The existing mines are still here but shut down decades ago.
Ask Apple how it feels about paying a pretty big chunk of money to reopen one.
That guys mine was worth more closed than open.
Like so many things we sent that task to China a long time ago.
This topic has come up several times on HN [1][2] and no, the industry does not because there are other source, although more expensive. Other customers had to switch to Russian/Chinese sources due to the disruption but HPQ customers did not.
I figured at the time that other vendors would have a chance to take some HPQ market share but when Spruce Pine went down, Quartz Corp just shifted their refining operations to another plant in Drag, Norway and used existing feedstock and reserves to maintain supply to their customers. Sibelco restarted operations within a few weeks [3].
It was all a non-event in the semiconductor industry, especially compared to real disruptions like the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake that took out a fifth of 300mm wafer supply leading some fabs to shut down entire product lines.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 25.4 ms ] threadSpruce Pine quartz that doesn’t quite make the purity cut gets used for sandtraps in high-end golf courses.
https://hntrbrk.com/essential-node-in-global-semiconductor-s...
"Rare Earths" are literally everywhere but require large open mines which are not environmentally acceptable and cost effective in the US (depending). The existing mines are still here but shut down decades ago.
Ask Apple how it feels about paying a pretty big chunk of money to reopen one. That guys mine was worth more closed than open.
Like so many things we sent that task to China a long time ago.
I figured at the time that other vendors would have a chance to take some HPQ market share but when Spruce Pine went down, Quartz Corp just shifted their refining operations to another plant in Drag, Norway and used existing feedstock and reserves to maintain supply to their customers. Sibelco restarted operations within a few weeks [3].
It was all a non-event in the semiconductor industry, especially compared to real disruptions like the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake that took out a fifth of 300mm wafer supply leading some fabs to shut down entire product lines.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41701862
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39818248
[3] https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/11/24267697/north-carolina-...