Hurricane Helene has halted North Carolina mining operations producing high-purity quartz used to make silicon wafers for semiconductor manufacturing.
Operators Sibelco and Quartz Corp. both shut their facilities on Sept. 26, the companies said in separate statements. It’s too early to say when production could restart, they said.
The storm severely hit the community, which is struggling with flooding and power and communication outages, and the restart of operations is a secondary concern for now, the companies said.
Spruce Pine, a small town an hour north of Asheville, is among the only sites in the world to contain high-purity quartz, which is key to making semiconductors, according to author Ed Conway, who wrote Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization.
The halt in operations could affect global supply chains that depend on semiconductors to make phones, solar panels and other technology.
(By Sana Pashankar)
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