Does All Semiconductor Manufacturing Depend on Spruce Pine Quartz? (2024)

[throwup238]

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.

[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-...

[impish9208]

Hunterbrook did a great piece about this after Hurricane Helene last year.

https://hntrbrk.com/essential-node-in-global-semiconductor-s...

[mhb]

!

Spruce Pine quartz that doesn’t quite make the purity cut gets used for sandtraps in high-end golf courses.

[relaxing]

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?

[HPsquared]

Belgium and Norway are firmly in the US' orbit. They're not going anywhere.

[alephnerd]

> Presumably due to lack of expertise

Nope. The American entities used to be independent companies but faced financial troubles when the mining industry died in the US during the 2010s due to a mix of a commodity glut, lack of state support, and competitors like Norway and China infusing state originated capital into their players

[back2dafucha]

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.

[egl2020]

AFAIK the mine is less of a problem than the refinery and its waste.

[mschuster91]

> "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.

The problem is, "cost effective" has different meanings depending on if one includes externalities such as geopolitical risks into the cost.

[alephnerd]

Not all rare earths are equally distributed. Lithium sure, but not a number of other REEs like Neodymium, Dysprosium, Molybdenum, and others are only found in unequally distributed concentrated deposits.

[fallpeak]

Did you write this or is it AI? Not hating, but it pings several of my "AI writing" heuristics and I'd like to improve my model if possible.

edit: Never mind, given your comment history this is definitely LLM output.

[HPsquared]

See also all the hype about rare earths being needed for electric motors and generators, or cobalt for batteries. Neither of those are really strictly needed. Induction motors can be used instead which don't require any magnets (but those are a few percent less efficient); Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries don't need cobalt (they are slightly less powerful but cheaper and safer).