https://www.washingtonpost.com/
The high-purity quartz sand that’s mined in the town of Spruce Pine, N.C., is critical for making everything from semiconductors to solar panels.
Flooding in North Carolina has imperiled the operations of mines that produce the world’s purest quartz sand — an irreplaceable ingredient for manufacturing components at the heart of smartphones and other electronic devices.
The town of Spruce Pine, where these unique mines are located, remains in a dire situation, with power, water and cell service largely disconnected early Tuesday. While the floodwaters brought on by Helene have receded, local residents said many roads remained impassable. Some people were still trying desperately to confirm loved ones were safe.
The calamity has devastated this small town of about 2,200 along the North Toe River but is also expected to affect people around the world. The high-purity quartz from Spruce Pine’s mines is key for the production of semiconductors — the brains inside computing devices — as well as solar panels, fiber-optic cables and other industrial products.
For the rest of this article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/10/01/flooding-north-carolina-sand-quartz-electronics-supply-chain/