Peter Zeihan: How a Small Town in NC Could Disrupt Global Semiconductor Production

October 16, 2024

From WWSG speaker, Peter Zeihan: We’re hitting the backroads today and chatting about the small town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina. What this town lacks in population, it makes up in its (extremely important) quartz mines.

These mines in Spruce Pine play a critical role in semiconductor manufacturing, thanks to the very pure quartz found here. This pure quartz is used to make the crucibles in which silicon is melted down without contamination. And no this isn’t just one of the many places that has this stuff…Spruce Pine accounts for an estimated 70-90% of the world’s crucible-grade quartz.

Hurricane Helene has put these mines in jeopardy with the heavy rains and flooding that hit the area. This has shut down the roads and the mines, and recovery efforts will be stalled until the larger towns are taken care of. This means the mines could be out of commission for a while, impacting the supply chains for the semiconductor fabrication plants.

We’re not in the red-zone yet, since most facilities keep a decent reserve on hand. However, if the production of this high-quality silicon is affected, we could be looking at major disruptions down the road.

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