I'm hearing that the all-important quartz factory is gone? If so, this is HUGE!!! "The quartz mine needed to refine silicone needed to make anything electronic in North Carolina is gone, thus far this is only known source in the world for this type of quartz."
Article from March 2024: The world's semiconductor industry hinges on a single quartz factory in North Carolina, "the sole supplier of the quartz required to make the crucibles needed to refine silicon wafers." "However, any sudden closure or interruption of the mining at Spruce Pine would likely cause "pretty catastrophic" disruption (and extra expense) for a few years as the industry scales up manufacturing." https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/semiconductors/the-worlds-semiconductor-industry-hinges-on-a-quartz-factory-in-north-carolina
So, maybe China is throwing hurricanes at us to destroy out / the wests (and taiwans) semiconductor industry and future industry (micron)?
Was this the real target?
Hmmm, and there was a biolab on fire in GA yesterday....
And Alias was a show about…..a spy.
This is really not good. It's hard to believe this was an accident. There were warnings like this:
https://www.viksnewsletter.com/p/the-semiconductor-apocalypse-no-one
Way back in April, hinting that this was a supply bottleneck. I just don't believe in coincidences any more. This is way too convenient a location for a flood.
The price of silicon wafers was already in the stratosphere (a single 3nm silicon wafer is over $20K), and now it appears nobody will be able to replace the crucibles needed to keep producing, let alone ramp up production to meet increasing demand from all the new foundries.
This devastating news, leads me to one inevitable conclusion. Nothing can stop what is coming.
Whoa. Just looked it up on maps, looks like the place in the photo is called Sibelco North America Inc. In case anyone wants to post any updates they find. Also found this... https://www.interest.co.nz/technology/129982/north-carolinas-spruce-pine-devastated-hurricane-helene-worlds-main-source-high
Is this a white hat or Black hat operation? This leads me to the conclusion that the deserve-it-factor of the Western World is hitting all-time lows.
I mentioned this to my father. He's a chemist, and is intimately aware of the process to make silicon wafers. He says there are plenty of other sources, they just might be at a higher cost. So he says it's not that big of an issue. I guess we'll see.
I’ve worked in the semiconductor industry for over 40 years. Quartz is used in many high temperature manufacturing tools. It’s a consumable item over the course of a year or so, some can be pulled cleaned and reused, some needs replacement. Sensitive to power outages. Lead times have been horrendous the last few years, sometimes 6 mo to a year to get something. We don’t stock enough in house to cover us in the event of a bad power loss. This isn’t good news, i’ll have to ask around and see if this impacts us at all…