Honglei New Material

Chips are the fundamental components of information technology and play a crucial role in modern society. They are essential in various aspects of our lives, including smartphones, computers, smart home appliances, transportation, and the military sector. Recently, there has been a shortage of chips, which initially affected the automotive industry and gradually spread to many other consumer electronics products, including smartphones, refrigerators, and microwaves.

Cars lack 'chips'

According to Bernstein Research, the global shortage of automotive chips in 2021 is expected to result in a production loss of up to 4.5 million vehicles worldwide, which is nearly 5% of the global annual automotive production. During the pandemic, there was a strong demand for consumer electronics products. The impact of the pandemic led to the rise of remote work as a "new trend," increasing the usage of computers, tablets, and other consumer electronics products, consequently increasing the demand for chips.

During the pandemic, there was a strong demand for consumer electronics products

Due to the impact of the epidemic last year, working at home has become a "new fashion", the use of consumer electronic products such as computers and tablets has increased, and the demand for chips has also increased.

The chip manufacturing process has many steps and is difficult, and the raw material demand alone faces many problems.Silicon is the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust, and the deoxidized silica sand (especially quartz) contains up to 25% silicon, in the form of silicon dioxide (SiO2), which is also the basis of the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

High purity quartz is an essential key material for integrated circuits, semiconductor chips, photovoltaic, optical fiber, new glass and other industries, but the deposits that can produce high purity quartz are extremely scarce.

High purity quartz is an essential key material for integrated circuits, semiconductor chips, photovoltaic, optical fiber, new glass and other industries, but the deposits that can produce high purity quartz are extremely scarce.

Global distribution of high purity quartz raw material deposits

Global high purity quartz raw material deposit

According to the resource distribution and development status of Wang Jiuyi's high-purity quartz raw material mines in the world, the global high-purity quartz raw material deposits are distributed in seven countries, including the United States, Norway, Australia, Russia, Mauritania, China and Canada.

America

• The Spruspine deposit
  

The Sprouse Pine high purity quartz raw material Mine is located in the town of Sprouse Pine in Mitchell County, western North Carolina.The main rock-forming minerals of the ore are plagioclase, potassium feldspar, quartz, Muscovite, and almost no mafic minerals.The impurity content of quartz is very low, after mechanical and chemical purification, the obtained high-purity and ultra-pure quartz is mainly used in semiconductor wafers, precision optical glass, photovoltaic, lighting and other industries.

The mine supplied more than 90% of the world's demand for high-purity quartz sand and was even the only source for a long time.In 2009 the BBC called it "the most strategically valuable square acre on Earth".

• Beauville deposit

The Bovill Mine is located in the town of Bovill in Latah County, northern Idaho.By electron probe analysis, the purity of quartz crystals in ores is greater than 99.9%, and the contents of Al2O3 and Fe2O3 are lower than 40×10-6(I-Minerals, 2014).High purity quartz sand can be produced by using the traditional flotation purification process similar to Spruspine mine, and the difficulty of ore purification processing is relatively low.

Norse

•  Drage deposit

Located near the village of Drage on the west side of Tysfjord in Norland County, northern Norway, the Drage mine consists of dozens of pegmatitic quartz ore bodies spread over an area of 5km2.The quartz crystal is pure, the average particle size is 6mm, the fluid and solid inclusions are very rare, and the lattice impurity elements such as Al, Ti, Li and B meet the quality requirements of high purity quartz raw materials.

• The Nesorden deposit

The Neisorden mine is located in Kvinnherad, Khordaland County, southwest Norway, and the quartz crystals in the ore are large, ranging in size from 1μm to 3cm, with an average of 3mm;Due to the influence of post-Caledonian tectonic movement, quartz crystals are generally strongly recrystallized, fluid inclusions are widely developed, and solid inclusions such as Muscovite, potassium feldspar and calcite are also common.

Australia

•  Lighthouse deposit

The deposit is located in the Georgetown district of northern Queensland.The deposit is hydrothermal gangue quartz type, which is composed of two lighthouse-like quartz peaks in the east and west, about 440m above the surface, so it is named the lighthouse deposit.The ore is pure, translucent or opalescent, massive, and nearly upright filled in the reverse fault.By ICP-OES test, the ore purity of the east and west ore bodies is > 99.90%, the main impurity elements Al, Ti, Fe, P, Ca and other contents are low, after simple mechanical purification, the purity can reach more than 99.95%, which proves that the lighthouse deposit is a high-quality high purity quartz raw material ore.

•  Sugar bag Mountain deposit

Located in Georgetown District, the deposit is of hydrothermal gangue type and is filled in the paleoproterozoic metamorphic rock series fault zone in a NW - SE direction.The ore quality is extremely high, in situ SiO2 purity can reach more than 99.99%.

 At present, high purity quartz sand has not yet been mined and produced in Tangbaishan deposit, but its proved and controlled resources are considerable and can be mined in open pit.The purity of SiO2 is more than 99.99%, which greatly reduces the cost of mining and purification.

• Baiquan and quartz Mountain deposits

 All the deposits are of hydrothermal gangue type, and the mineralization process is similar to that of Lighthouse deposit.Baiquan vein quartz is found in biotite granodiorite of Siluran-Devonian period, and quartz mountain quartz is found in biotite gneiss of Proterozoic Aynsley metamorphic rock series in vertical tube form.The ore quality of Baiquan mine is excellent, the purity of raw SiO2 is more than 99.99%, and the inferred resources of high purity quartz are 1.5 million tons.The raw material purity of quartz Mountain ore is greater than 99.5%, which meets the predicted high purity quartz resources of 14 million tons according to JORC standard (Solar QuartzTechnologies, 2016), and the resource scale is huge.

•  The Cresik deposit

 The deposit is located in Cressik District, south central Victoria, Australia, 130km southeast of Melbourne City and 20km south of Ballarat City.The deposit is of gold tailings type, which is composed of tailings after gold mining abandoned in the 19th century gold rush.The ore is quartz gravel of 6 ~ 200mm in the tailings, with excellent quality and low content of impurity elements, especially B and P content.After the traditional mechanical and chemical purification process treatment by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia, the purity of high purity quartz sand SiO2 can reach 99.995%.

 Russia 

•  The Kishtem deposit 

The Kshtem deposit is located in the city of Kshtem, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, 100km to the southeast from Chelyabinsk City.The deposit is of hydrothermal gangue type and occurs in gneiss and migmatite of the Upper Archean Uphare metamorphic complex series.Gangue minerals mainly include feldspar, mica, carbonate, zircon, monazite and so on.The total length of the mine is 15km, the width is 1 ~ 3km, the area is 20km2, and the quartz reserves are 1.36 million tons.The main ore body used as a raw material for high purity quartz is Vein 175, which is distributed in a northeast-southeast direction on the west side of Karabash City.In 2014, IMCMontan conducted a reserve assessment of Vein 175 according to JORC standards, showing that the ore body's reserves of high-purity quartz raw materials exceed 500,000 tons.

• The Salampur deposit

 The Salanpur deposit is located in the northwest margin of the Khant-Mansi autonomous Lezovsky District of Russia. The ore is translucent and transparent with glassy luster.Gangue minerals contain small amounts of mica, calcite, chlorite, apatite and trace amounts of pyrite and sphene.The deposit is mainly composed of three mining areas: Dudu, Nestershur and Kusoyka.Dudu mining area has the largest amount of resources.According to the 2014 exploration report of the three mining areas, the amount of resources available for high-purity quartz is 330,000 tons.In addition, a number of unexplored quartz veins have been found outside the mining area, and the potential resources may be more considerable. 

 Mauritania 

• Um Aquinina deposit

 The deposit is located in the Gulf of Nouadhibou Province in western Mauritania.The deposit is of hydrothermal gangue type and intrusions into granitic gneiss and schist of the Archean Regibart Shield in the form of dike veins.The ore is light gray translucent, smooth and transparent, and the content of SiO2 in some samples is greater than 99.8%.The exposed ore body appears as large broken gangue gravel covered with a small amount of laterite.The inferred resources of quartz are 5 to 10 million tons, but due to the lack of drilling verification and test analysis and necessary beneficiation experiments, the amount of resources that can be used as high purity quartz raw materials is unknown.

•  Chami deposit 

 The Chami deposit is located in the eastern Nuadhibwan Province, 20km from the Um Aquinina mine.The genesis, ore type, surrounding rock and occurrence characteristics of the deposit are similar to those of Umm Aquinina mine, and the ore SiO2 content is 98% ~ 99.9%.Some ore samples were purified and tested by Anzapram, and the purity and quality could reach IOTA4 standard.

Canada

• John Bitz high purity quartz raw material ore 

 In the coastal zone of John Bitz Bay in southeastern Quebec, Canada, 10 hydrothermal gangue ore bodies in a northest-southwest direction are emerging from the surface, namely the John Bitz high purity quartz raw material mine.The mining area is 68km away from the Port of Saint Pierre and 300km away from the port of Seven Islands.The area is mainly composed of Proterozoic quartzite, gabbro and granitic gneiss.PLA Company of Canada samples the typical veins of the mining area, and commissioned Anzapuran Company to analyze the ore quality, the results show that the SiO2 content of the ore is 98.7%~99.6%, the average content of impurity elements B and P are lower than 0.25×10-6 and 0.2×10-6, respectively, which can be used to produce PV quartz crucible.

 China

• Lingqiu mountain quartz mine

 Located in Hengchezhen, about 20km northwest of Qichun County, Lingqiao Mountain quartz deposit is of hydrothermal gangue type and was formed by siliceous hydrothermal intrusion into biotite plagioclase gneiss, granitic gneiss and amphibolite of the Hong 'an Formation of the Archean Dabie Mountain Group.The 401 team of Hubei Provincial Capital Construction Commission explored the deposit from 1971 to 1973 and found 6 gangue ore bodies with a total of 3.874 million tons of gangue reserves (No. 401st Team of Hubei Provincial Capital Construction Commission, 1972).The results of drilling and sampling analysis show that the ore is almost composed of quartz, the crystal size is 1 ~ 2mm, containing trace pyrite, Muscovite, sericite, chlorite, molybdenite and so on.The purity of ore SiO2 > 99.35%, Al2O3 < 0.22%, Fe2O3 < 0.02%.At present, Lingqiu Mountain Quartz Mine in Qichun County, Hubei Province holds the mining right of the deposit, open-pit mining, and its designed mine scale is 15,000 tons of ore per year.