Floods from Hurricane Helene Impact Crucial High-Purity Quartz Mines

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Flooding in North Carolina has forced two high-purity quartz mines to temporarily suspend operations. High-purity quartz is mined in only a few locations in the world, and is a critical material used in the manufacture of semiconductor wafers.

The town of Spruce Pine, which is home to the mines, was hard hit by torrential rainfall and flooding caused by Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Florida on Thursday and swept across the Appalachian region. Roads and other infrastructure have been severely damaged.

The Quartz Corporation (Drag, Norway) issued a statement Tuesday, saying: "Hurricane Helene has severely hit our Spruce Pine community which is currently facing multiple challenges from flooding, and power and communication outages. It is a dramatic situation for the region."

The company continued: "Operations at our facilities were stopped on September 26th in preparation of the event and we have no visibility on when they will restart. This is second order of priority. Our top priority remains the health and safety of our employees and their families."

Sibelco (Antwerp, Belgium), another quartz mine operator at Spruce Pine, issued a statement on Monday.

"Hurricane Helene has significantly impacted North Carolina, USA, and the Spruce Pine community has been hit particularly hard," Sibelco said. "The hurricane has caused widespread flooding, power outages, communication disruptions, and damage to critical infrastructure in the area. Many people in the area, including our employees and their families, are facing displacement and significant disruptions."

Sibelco continued: "As of September 26th, we have temporarily halted operations at the Spruce Pine facilities in response to these challenges. Please rest assured that Sibelco is actively collaborating with government agencies and third-party rescue and recovery operations to mitigate the impact of this event and to resume operations as soon as possible."

Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Metals & Minerals Plant Database can click here for the plant profiles of the Quartz Corp. and Sibelco facilities.

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