Hurricane Helene brought historic rainfall and flooding to western North Carolina last week,\u00a0leaving dozens dead and catastrophic damage<\/a>\u00a0stretching across the state\u2019s mountain towns. The devastation also reached the small town of Spruce Pine, which is home to the purest quartz on Earth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Spruce Pine\u2019s high-quality quartz is an essential ingredient in the chipmaking process, as\u00a0it\u2019s the only naturally occurring source<\/a>\u00a0of the ultrapure mineral. The quartz mined from this area is used as a crucible to melt polysilicon, which is then used to produce silicon wafers \u2014 the base of a semiconductor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Even though it\u2019s possible to produce pure silicon from the quartz found in abundance elsewhere in the world, it takes a considerable amount of time and resources to do so, according\u00a0to a 2018 report from\u00a0Wired<\/em><\/a>. Hurricane Helene dumped more than two feet of rain on Spruce Pine, with\u00a0several reports<\/a>\u00a0on X<\/a>\u00a0showing extreme damage and flooding<\/a>\u00a0that has made roadways inaccessible<\/a>, while many people in the area are without power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But with communication in the region still extremely difficult, it\u2019s been hard to determine whether the two mining companies that operate in the town \u2014 Sibelco and The Quartz Corp \u2014 are affected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe are in a phase of assessing the situation and it is far too early to comment on the impact to high purity quartz production,\u201d The Quartz Corp spokesperson May Kristin Haugen said in a statement to\u00a0The Verge<\/em>.\u00a0\u201cOur priority now is people and the families being affected by this terrible storm.\u201d We reached out to Sibelco with a request for comment but didn\u2019t immediately hear back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As pointed out by\u00a0Wired<\/em>, a\u00a02008 Spruce Pine fire<\/a>\u00a0\u201call but shut off the supply of high-purity quartz to the world market, sending shivers through the industry.\u201d If the two mines sustained damage this time around, the impact could be even greater, given the world\u2019s increased reliance on chips to make phones, processors, solar panels, and other technology.<\/p>\n Over the past couple of years, we\u2019ve seen just how fragile the semiconductor industry is. Several companies,\u00a0ranging from Intel<\/a>\u00a0to Sony<\/a>\u00a0and even\u00a0automakers like Ford<\/a>, took years to recover from the\u00a0global chip shortage stemming<\/a>\u00a0from the covid pandemic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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