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Hardware

The Ultra-Pure, Super-Secret Sand That Makes Your Phone Possible (wired.com) 160

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
The processor that makes your laptop or cell phone work was fabricated using quartz from this obscure Appalachian backwater. From a report: Alex Glover is a recently retired geologist who has spent decades hunting for valuable minerals in the hillsides and hollows of the Appalachian Mountains that surround Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Spruce Pine is not a wealthy place. Its downtown consists of a somnambulant train station across the street from a couple of blocks of two-story brick buildings, including a long-closed movie theater and several empty storefronts. The wooded mountains surrounding it, though, are rich in all kinds of desirable rocks, some valued for their industrial uses, some for their pure prettiness. But it's the mineral in Glover's bag -- snowy white grains, soft as powdered sugar -- that is by far the most important these days. It's quartz, but not just any quartz. Spruce Pine, it turns out, is the source of the purest natural quartz -- a species of pristine sand -- ever found on Earth.

This ultra-elite deposit of silicon dioxide particles plays a key role in manufacturing the silicon used to make computer chips. In fact, there's an excellent chance the chip that makes your laptop or cell phone work was made using sand from this obscure Appalachian backwater. "It's a billion-dollar industry here," Glover says with a hooting laugh. "Can't tell by driving through here. You'd never know it." In the 21st century, sand has become more important than ever, and in more ways than ever. Most of the world's sand grains are composed of quartz, which is a form of silicon dioxide, also known as silica. High-purity silicon dioxide particles are the essential raw materials from which we make computer chips, fiber-optic cables, and other high-tech hardware -- the physical components on which the virtual world runs.
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The Ultra-Pure, Super-Secret Sand That Makes Your Phone Possible More

The Ultra-Pure, Super-Secret Sand That Makes Your Phone Possible

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  • "backwater" places (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 07, 2018 @01:27PM (#57086392)

    I love how people refer to rural areas as backwaters. Yet folks from the city get all bent out of shape when we call their dirty shitholes what they are, dirty shitholes. Enjoy choking on smog and surface level ozone. Meanwhile I'll enjoy the fresh air and clean water in my "backwater"

    • Not all cities, man. I grew up in the middle of nowhere. I also lived in Seattle for two years. Nice place, wish I could go back.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      According to Webster's then term backwater can mean, "isolated or backward place or condition." A glance at the map shows that Spruce Pine, North Carolina is indeed pretty isolated. Hope that makes you feel a bit less hurt.

      • Re:"backwater" places (Score:5, Insightful)

        by king neckbeard ( 1801738 ) on Tuesday August 07, 2018 @01:51PM (#57086604)
        A more neutral alternative would have been "remote." The usage of backwater is pejorative here.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward
          For modern tech "reporters", anything and anywhere that isn't wired to the hilt and blasting user data to Big Cloud Company X 24/7 is a thing to be scorned and looked down upon.

          • The ironic part being all those billions the sand miners are bringing in, will not result in actual storefronts, but WILL result in blasting user data to Big Cloud Companies.

        • The usage of backwater is pejorative here.

          I know, right? Just imagine how a river must feel about it.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • I love how people refer to rural areas as backwaters.

      Yep, that's what the word means.

    • Are there a lot of straw men out your way? Or is that just your yard?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I love how people refer to rural areas as backwaters

      Right, as if there's a bay in the mountains of North Carolina. But I could be wrong. For all I know, those hillbillies are getting rich from crabbing and shrimping those mountains.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        There's lots of crayfish.

    • Re:"backwater" places (Score:4, Interesting)

      by pgmrdlm ( 1642279 ) on Tuesday August 07, 2018 @02:28PM (#57086862) Journal
      If the back waters were to stop shipping all resources they have to big cities. Lets see. That would be food, water, any and all minerals, timber, and anything else that big cities need but will never get without the backwaters. I bet the elites would show more respect.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        If backwaters stopped selling their stuff to rich cities, their quality of life would collapse. They might have enough food to sustain themselves but that's about it. They won't have electricity, air-conditioning, tractors, pesticides, paved roads, cars, any variety in their diet at all, and life will be so damn boring when the only entertainment is some banjo player. Hell, they wouldn't even have banjos since those came from africa.

      • That'll fix'em. And they can keep their highfalutin phones and movies and stuff.

      • And those backwaters will then learn about all the funding the big cities sent to build and maintain the infrastructure in the backwaters.

    • I love how people refer to rural areas as backwaters.

      You prefer to refer to rural backwaters as areas?

  • Somnambulant train station (Score:5, Funny)

    by Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 ) on Tuesday August 07, 2018 @01:27PM (#57086396)

    A somnambulant train station... that's quite impressive. Not many towns have sleep-walking train stations.

  • "ultra-elite deposit of silicon dioxide" "somnambulant train station"
    What?

    • "ultra-elite deposit of silicon dioxide" "somnambulant train station"

      It's a new Elon Musk project.

      What?

      If you have to ask, you can't afford it.

    • Right, the article should have carried the standard warning: "May contain words of three syllables or more."

  • I've always found sand to be course, rough, and irritating. It gets everywhere.

    • Re:Sand "soft as powdered sugar"? Interesting... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Tuesday August 07, 2018 @01:36PM (#57086480)
      As the Arab sheikh said of his harem, "Damn sand gets in everything!"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sconeu ( 64226 )

      Ever been to any of the Caribbean islands? White powder sand like you wouldn't believe.

      Still gets into everything, though.

    • Find somewhere with finer sand. The Redneck Riviera^W^W "Emerald Coast" of Florida has very fine white sand. Still irritant if you rub yourself in it, but one hope's you're smarter than that. It's nowhere near as coarse or rough as sand most places. Plus, it squeaks when you walk on it.
    • Fumed silica is powdered sand. It has a number of uses, one common one is for fillers in other solidifying liquids such as rubber, glue and paint. 'Food-safe' (sterile) fumed silica is a common food ingredient/thickener. You can buy bags of it on ebay.

      Fumed silica bounces. If you hit a bag of fumed silica with your hand, you can feel it vibrate after for a bit, as if it is rubber.

      Oh--and also it can kill you (if you breathe it) ... but then again, what fun stuff doesn't do that?

  • "Somnambulant??" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Type44Q ( 1233630 ) on Tuesday August 07, 2018 @01:38PM (#57086504)

    ...somnambulant train station

    Having an extensive vocabulary: Impressive.

    Having a shitty vocabulary and trying too hard to compensate: Priceless!

    • ...somnambulant train station

      Having an extensive vocabulary: Impressive.

      Having a shitty vocabulary and trying too hard to compensate: Priceless!

      It's a classic case of using the Latinate instead of the far-preferable Anglo-Saxon option. In this case, "sleepy." (Unless a train station can somehow sleep walk.)

      Maybe the writer just over-cogitated the word choice.

      • ambulant = walk, any dictionary that simplifies that to sleepy shows it's youth

        • ambulant = walk, any dictionary that simplifies that to sleepy shows it's youth

          You're right, it isn't a straight substitution. I still think the author failed at a clever replacement for "sleepy," given the context. The imagery just makes no sense.

          • ...yep...the writer showed his ignorance...or his school's...he may have meant sleepy but he said sleep-walking...

    • Re:"Somnambulant??" (Score:5, Funny)

      by PPH ( 736903 ) on Tuesday August 07, 2018 @02:06PM (#57086712)

      Quite frankly I'm against people who give vent to their loquacity by extraneous bombastic circumlocution.

    • ...somnambulant train station

      Having an extensive vocabulary: Impressive.

      Having a shitty vocabulary and trying too hard to compensate: Priceless!

      I thought it was a great word choice, nice poetic imagery. Obviously the train station doesn't sleepwalk (just as a "sleepy" station doesn't drowse), but the word evokes an image of someone going through the motions while not actually awake/alert. Plus the word has a nice rhythm and sound to it. I liked it.

    • I knew this topic would be addressed in the comments.

      Damn it, I love you nerds.

      LK

  • Help measuring (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I recently started a geology hobby. Can anyone elaborate on the specific qualities of this sand? How is the purity measured? Maybe point to some bibliography? I'd love to measure the 'purity' of the sand next time I find myself in a quarry!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bws111 ( 1216812 )

      Start with TFA, which gives an overview. Basically, purity is measured by how many (expensive, trade secret) physical and chemical processes you have to run the sand through until you wind up with just the desired material. Probably not something you are going to do as a hobby.

  • This is a test please ignore.

  • Huge batch of nothing (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Fairly deceptive, the sand from this source isn't used in the electronics grade silicon, it just makes for cheaper quartz crucibles used in making electronics grade silicon. Nothing really new or noteworthy here, without this sand supply semiconductor costs might rise .00353% or so. Literally nothing compared to R&D, manufacturing tools cost, DI water, electricity, labor, the cost to build a fab, testing, packaging, etc.

  • Why isn't the wealth coming back to the community? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Ignore all those thin-skinned culture warriors whining about word choice, its standard authoritarian distraction designed to keep regular folks from talking about important stuff.

    The real issue here is why the people in this place aren't benefiting from the mining? It sounds like the same old "resource curse" that screws over poor people the world over - a couple of very wealthy people come and take without giving back proportionality. Sure, they give a little, baubles basically, to keep everyone distrac

  • What's next? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Spruce Pine was the mica capital during WWII. Then it was a significant source of feldspar. Now pure-ish quartz. There've been some less-than-legal industries there, too.

  • Oh great (Score:3)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Tuesday August 07, 2018 @04:58PM (#57087878)

    This is a setup for telling us we are going to run out of sand. Yes like we will run out of aluminum (which literally the most abundant metal in the Earth surface/crust), or water. All it means is an extra purification step. Without an ideal ore it just means we need to do extra purification steps .. like for example desalinating sea water or building pipelines into desert areas. If we ran out of this quartz we can use sand from somewhere else .. it may cost more in terms of energy to purify it thats all. Use solar or nuclear fusion (eventually) or something.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      This is a setup for telling us we are going to run out of sand.

      Okay, you keep your tin foil hat on there buddy.

      Yes like we will run out of aluminum

      Who said we're running out of Aluminum? We recycle the stuff because its so damn energy intensive to purify raw bauxite.

      All it means is an extra purification step.

      A very, very expensive purification step in the case of aluminum.

      If we ran out of this quartz we can use sand from somewhere else

      No shit, sherlock. Have anything more profound for us?

      Without an ideal

      • The running out of sand bit actually isn't a tin hat talking point, it just needs more specific wording. The problem is that production of concrete uses up a lot of sand, and in particular sand that is rough around the edges. When talking about running out of sand people typically point to the worlds immense deserts and laugh. However the sands in the deserts have been weathered to the point that they aren't very good for making concrete. In some countries there is actually a problem with illegal dredging o

  • Wonder If We Have The Same Sand (Score:3)

    by Toad-san ( 64810 ) on Wednesday August 08, 2018 @08:52AM (#57090890)

    A couple of years ago some fat cats in Charlotte tried to buy land to dig a sand mine here near my town of Red Springs NC. It didn't happen: town fathers were rightfully suspicious because of several misleading statements from the purchasers ("We want to build big mansions!"), the history of total environmental disaster aftermaths in nearby counties from similar sand mines, etc.

    The word finally was that they wanted the sand (particularly good stuff for top-end glass, they were now saying), and of course they'd clean everything up.

    Riiii-ight. Still, one wonders if our sand is as good as that pure quartz stuff up in the mountains. Numerous sand pits around here, part of our ancient history as a shallow sea bottom, but none particularly distinguished.

  • It would be nice to hear real news. After all, the word is based on the adjective "new." Oy.

  • "But it's the mineral in Glover's bag -- snowy white grains, soft as powdered sugar -- that is by far the most important these days."

    Sounded like we were about to start discussing something else here.

    This article writer sounds like they are trying to be a novelist instead.

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