What is it?
Quartz sand so free of other elements that it can be melted into the crucible a silicon crystal is grown inside.
Why does it matter?
Very few deposits on Earth are clean enough. The crucible touches molten silicon for days, so any impurity in it ends up in the chip.
Deeper written sections for this material have not been published yet. Everything below is drawn straight from the source datasets and is complete.
Where it comes from in the rock
All ore minerals →These are the minerals that actually carry high-purity quartz. A deposit is only an orebody if one of them is concentrated enough to pay for digging it up.
Price
as-grown cultured quartz, dollars per kilogram
Annual averagedollars per kilogram
Basis: as-grown cultured quartz, dollars per kilogram. Annual averages as published in USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 · source ↗. These are reference annual averages, not a live market quote.
lumbered quartz, dollars per kilogram
Annual averagedollars per kilogram
Basis: lumbered quartz, dollars per kilogram. Annual averages as published in USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 · source ↗. These are reference annual averages, not a live market quote.
Where it is processed and refined
| Plant | Kind | Stage | Country | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TSMC Fab 18, Tainan | Semiconductor fab | Component | Taiwan | Input |
| Hemlock Semiconductor Polysilicon Plant | Chemical plant | Refining | United States | Input |
What it is used for
All end markets →| End market | What it does there | Importance |
|---|---|---|
| Semiconductors | Crucibles for crystal growth | Defining |
How much of it a technology needs
| Technology | Quantity | Quoted | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leading-Edge Logic Chip Consumption is per ingot, not per wafer. | trace | per 300 mm wafer | Consumed as crucible during crystal growth |
Indicative range compiled from published technology studies and chemistry; verify against a manufacturer specification before use. Run these numbers at any scale in the material calculator →
Follow it across the borders
All journeys →Where a consignment of this material actually goes — every country, every custodian, and what is left behind at each step.
A quarry in North Carolina to the chip in your phone The most valuable sand on Earth, and almost all of it comes from one small district.