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.
LOL one more of these guys who think the world inside Usa’s borders is the bigger part, and the outside part is negligible.
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?
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!
Did you read the article? Or did you just see ‘North Carolina’ in the title and decide to complain about the United States?
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
The article’s implication is that not all quartz is the same quality. Are you saying that’s incorrect? This list seems irrelevant otherwise.
The article is correct. High purity quartz is necessary for semiconductors, not all quartz meets this standard.
They can’t use just any old piece of quartz so this info is worthless to the discussion.
Removed by mod
