The deposits formed 380 million years ago when Africa collided with North America.
  • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
    52·
    7 months ago

    Headline is a bit clickbaity. The article is too, but the headline is worse. This factory is the only one processing the local quartz deposits, which are the purest known in the world (at least to hear the article say it), to the degree that they do, and the resulting quartz is necessary to make crucibles for chip fabrication, among other things. The mining and/or industrial processes needed to replace either would be extremely expensive and take several years to ramp up, but the result would be “only” a price spike, new product delays, and a general logistics clusterfuck, not the end of the industry. Some of the article’s commenters suggest that it’s partially due to the ready availability and relatively low price of quartz from the factory that several other slightly less desirable facilities and mines shut down or scaled back. So, it’s all a bit breathless, but it does look like a significant, perhaps troubling, industrial bottleneck.

    • Lividpeon@kbin.social
      8·
      7 months ago

      I used to work for a foreign company in the US that made this stuff. All the crucibles were made out of graphite, never saw a quartz crucible, maybe they are used in the making of them via ingredient or mold, or maybe they produce a different quality of silicon. We “grew” the silicon into these big (ranging from 2-4ish ft long) cylinder like crystals where they would be shipped off to another area to be sliced into thin wafers for chips. The crucibles were good for maybe I think under 100 runs before they needed to be replaced if they didn’t fail before that.

      • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        7 months ago

        Seems that quartz is involved in a “Czochralski” method crucible. I dunno. I figured I dun gud just to read the article, LOL.

  • Vanth@reddthat.comEnglish
    15·
    7 months ago

    the sole supplier of the quartz required to make the crucibles needed to refine silicon wafers.There are no alternative sources known.

    The bit that supports the headline that totally does look click-baity and dramatic.

    Mollick provides an excerpt from Conway’s Material World, which discusses the probable “end of computer chip manufacture as we know it,” should something untoward happen at Spruce Pine or in the skies above

    Maybe Mollick is click-baity, but the article seems to be quoting directly and not creating the click-bait themselves.

  • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.worldEnglish
    517·
    7 months ago

    LOL one more of these guys who think the world inside Usa’s borders is the bigger part, and the outside part is negligible.

    • quartzmin3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19·
      7 months ago

      So you have some other secret high purity quartz mining facility (of the same quality, mind you, and that’s important because none of the other known facilities on Earth have the same quality) outside of the USA that we all can use?

      Snide comment aside, I love how you can be so reductionist to reduce this to “egotistical american bad” without understanding the global implications. You’re honestly no smarter than the average American. Tell me you don’t understand the process and nuances of creating semiconductors without telling me…

      Gaat het in uw bolleke?

      • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.worldEnglish
        25·
        7 months ago

        I know a turkish jewellery dealer, and his gold is the most pure that has ever existed in the whole world. I know for sure that it’s true, because he has been saying so all the time!

  • TheMurphy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    425·
    7 months ago

    Here’s the actual top 10 over exporting countries of quartz. Not even in the top 5 for the US.

    1 China $72,289,000

    2 Turkey $68,161,000

    3 India $43,827,000

    4 Spain $27,107,000

    5 Brazil $26,611,000

    6 United States $21,351,000

    7 Germany $16,791,000

    8 Italy $13,219,000

    9 Canada $12,225,000

    10 Egypt $10,204,000