The Spruce Pine narrative is a classic case of the internet oversimplifying a complex supply chain into a single point of failure story.
Yes, the quartz there is unusually pure and cheap to refine, and it dominates supply today. But semiconductors aren’t going to vanish overnight if those mines shut down. Synthetic quartz exists, other deposits exist, and the fabs already buffer crucibles.
The problem isn’t “chips depend on one town,” it’s “alternatives cost more and yields suffer.”
What’s actually interesting is that crucibles themselves are a hidden bottleneck. They drive up to a third of the cost of ingot production, and they wear out fast.
If someone develops a longer-lasting crucible material it wouldn’t just de-risk supply, it would lower solar PV costs and boost semiconductor efficiency.
The Spruce Pine hype is fun apocalypse bait, but the real opportunity is crucible innovation.
The part about the crucibles is somewhat interesting, if true, as it reminded me of a passage in the Manhattan Project engineering story that was posted the other day. They thought the melting point of plutonium would be a lot higher than it turned out to be, so they commissioned a lot of exotic crucibles [1] that turned out to be unneeded. They were apparently developed at MIT with cerium sulfide, a compound I'd never heard of before.
See also all the hype about rare earths being needed for electric motors and generators, or cobalt for batteries. Neither of those are really strictly needed. Induction motors can be used instead which don't require any magnets (but those are a few percent less efficient); Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries don't need cobalt (they are slightly less powerful but cheaper and safer).
Most of the automotive industry uses Electrically Excited Synchronous Motors (EESMs) as an alternative to NdFeB magnet motors not induction motors, but they have's taken off yet because investment in mass scale production only began 1-2 years ago.
This will change over the next 2-3 years because BMW, JLR/Tata, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Renault Group have begun moving to EESMs. EU OEMs who have a major foothold in the EESM market like Valeo are lobbying 80% EU indigenization for automotive parts in the EU [0], and India is also started a fairly large industrial subsidy to mass produce EESM powertrains [1] and a number of the players like Sterling Gtake have gotten tech transfers from European vendors like AEM that started off as NatSec funded applications [2]. That said, I also haven't seen a same push for a domestic EESM supply chain in the US unlike the EU and India - GM vendor Niron Magnetics [2] is the only American manufacturer I know trying to manufacture EESMs domestically.
That said, for a number of brownfield military applications, the migration away from NdFeB magnets cannot occur without essentially rendering entire product lines inoperable and unrepairable. This is why NiB magnet chains are viewed as extremely critical.
This is similar to the "rare earths" myths floating around. Its a prepper story for sure.
"Rare Earths" are literally everywhere but require large open mines which are not environmentally acceptable and cost effective in the US (depending). The existing mines are still here but shut down decades ago.
Ask Apple how it feels about paying a pretty big chunk of money to reopen one.
That guys mine was worth more closed than open.
Like so many things we sent that task to China a long time ago.
Not all rare earths are equally distributed. Lithium sure, but not a number of other REEs like Neodymium, Dysprosium, Molybdenum, and others are only found in unequally distributed concentrated deposits.
It’s interesting that the North Carolina quartz deposits are mined by two foreign interests. That despite the size of the US there was no company that could do it as economically as the Belgians and Norwegians. Presumably due to lack of expertise?
Nope. The American entities used to be independent companies but faced financial troubles when the mining industry died in the US during the 2010s due to a mix of a commodity glut, lack of state support, and competitors like Norway and China infusing state originated capital into their players
The Spruce Pine narrative is a classic case of the internet oversimplifying a complex supply chain into a single point of failure story.
Yes, the quartz there is unusually pure and cheap to refine, and it dominates supply today. But semiconductors aren’t going to vanish overnight if those mines shut down. Synthetic quartz exists, other deposits exist, and the fabs already buffer crucibles.
The problem isn’t “chips depend on one town,” it’s “alternatives cost more and yields suffer.”
What’s actually interesting is that crucibles themselves are a hidden bottleneck. They drive up to a third of the cost of ingot production, and they wear out fast.
If someone develops a longer-lasting crucible material it wouldn’t just de-risk supply, it would lower solar PV costs and boost semiconductor efficiency.
The Spruce Pine hype is fun apocalypse bait, but the real opportunity is crucible innovation.
Did you write this or is it AI? Not hating, but it pings several of my "AI writing" heuristics and I'd like to improve my model if possible.
edit: Never mind, given your comment history this is definitely LLM output.
Is it wrong?
The part about the crucibles is somewhat interesting, if true, as it reminded me of a passage in the Manhattan Project engineering story that was posted the other day. They thought the melting point of plutonium would be a lot higher than it turned out to be, so they commissioned a lot of exotic crucibles [1] that turned out to be unneeded. They were apparently developed at MIT with cerium sulfide, a compound I'd never heard of before.
1: https://www.construction-physics.com/p/an-engineering-histor...
> Is it wrong?
No, but it's a summary of the original article without anything added. I agree with GP that it's very likely LLM generated from the article.
See also all the hype about rare earths being needed for electric motors and generators, or cobalt for batteries. Neither of those are really strictly needed. Induction motors can be used instead which don't require any magnets (but those are a few percent less efficient); Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries don't need cobalt (they are slightly less powerful but cheaper and safer).
> Induction motors can be used instead
Most of the automotive industry uses Electrically Excited Synchronous Motors (EESMs) as an alternative to NdFeB magnet motors not induction motors, but they have's taken off yet because investment in mass scale production only began 1-2 years ago.
This will change over the next 2-3 years because BMW, JLR/Tata, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, and Renault Group have begun moving to EESMs. EU OEMs who have a major foothold in the EESM market like Valeo are lobbying 80% EU indigenization for automotive parts in the EU [0], and India is also started a fairly large industrial subsidy to mass produce EESM powertrains [1] and a number of the players like Sterling Gtake have gotten tech transfers from European vendors like AEM that started off as NatSec funded applications [2]. That said, I also haven't seen a same push for a domestic EESM supply chain in the US unlike the EU and India - GM vendor Niron Magnetics [2] is the only American manufacturer I know trying to manufacture EESMs domestically.
That said, for a number of brownfield military applications, the migration away from NdFeB magnets cannot occur without essentially rendering entire product lines inoperable and unrepairable. This is why NiB magnet chains are viewed as extremely critical.
[0] - https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/valeo-...
[1] - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/india-revs-up-alternate-...
[1] - https://www.ncl.ac.uk/business-and-partnerships/case-studies...
[2] - https://www.nironmagnetics.com/
This is similar to the "rare earths" myths floating around. Its a prepper story for sure.
"Rare Earths" are literally everywhere but require large open mines which are not environmentally acceptable and cost effective in the US (depending). The existing mines are still here but shut down decades ago.
Ask Apple how it feels about paying a pretty big chunk of money to reopen one. That guys mine was worth more closed than open.
Like so many things we sent that task to China a long time ago.
AFAIK the mine is less of a problem than the refinery and its waste.
Not all rare earths are equally distributed. Lithium sure, but not a number of other REEs like Neodymium, Dysprosium, Molybdenum, and others are only found in unequally distributed concentrated deposits.
You might consider looking up what a “rare earth” is. Your list is rather confused.
Fair enough.
Neodymium and Dysprosium are REEs.
Molybdenum is not but it is a critical element that is also commonly brought up in the same conversations as REEs.
I think recentering the convo to "critical minerals" would solve the issue.
Hunterbrook did a great piece about this after Hurricane Helene last year.
https://hntrbrk.com/essential-node-in-global-semiconductor-s...
!
Spruce Pine quartz that doesn’t quite make the purity cut gets used for sandtraps in high-end golf courses.
It’s interesting that the North Carolina quartz deposits are mined by two foreign interests. That despite the size of the US there was no company that could do it as economically as the Belgians and Norwegians. Presumably due to lack of expertise?
Belgium and Norway are firmly in the US' orbit. They're not going anywhere.
> Presumably due to lack of expertise
Nope. The American entities used to be independent companies but faced financial troubles when the mining industry died in the US during the 2010s due to a mix of a commodity glut, lack of state support, and competitors like Norway and China infusing state originated capital into their players