In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the world’s largest source of the mineral needed to create semiconductors has been hit—something that could potentially send ripple effects throughout the automotive industry, Jalopnik reports.
First making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, Hurricane Helene has devastated much of the U.S. Southeast. 102 people across six states have died, with 42 of them being North Carolinians.
The Tar Heel State likely saw the most damage in Asheville, with roads so damaged the town is struggling to access necessary supplies and some residents are unable to leave.
50 miles away, in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, roads were flooded with over two feet of water. Though it’s a small town of only 2,200 residents, it also happens to be the world’s dominant source of a high-purity quartz needed to produce semiconductors.
Specifically, the quartz obtained from Spruce Pine’s mining district is used to manufacture silicon wafers used in semiconductors, as well as solar panels. Though there are other sources of the mineral elsewhere, nowhere consistently yields quartz as pure, which is crucial for allowing electrons to freely move around.
“It is rare, unheard of almost, for a single site to control the global supply of a crucial material. Yet if you want to get high-purity quartz—the kind you need to make those crucibles without which you can’t make silicon wafers—it has to come from Spruce Pine,” explained Ed Conway, author of the 2023 book “Material World.”
In a conversation with Jalopnik, Conway added that the potential impact on the auto industry will vary greatly depending on the conditions in the area. Due to a large stockpile of quartz maintained by most companies, a brief pause in production—lasting days or weeks—would likely not hamper anything too dramatically.
However, in the event that production or delivery of quartz is impacted for months or longer, it could lead to the price of silicon wafers rising, and in turn, semiconductors becoming increasingly costly and scarce. As of now, it’s still too early to determine the status in Spruce Pine, among the monumental damage inflicted by Hurricane Helene.
