Sarah Atkins
mnjreporter@gmail.com
North Carolina Senate Bill 607, newly ratified by the state senate, prohibits adversarial foreign governments from acquiring quartz mining operations and lands containing high-purity quartz.
Two mines in Spruce Pine are primary sources of the world’s highest-purity quartz, according to Imerys mining company. These mines are owned by Sibelco and Quartz Corp.
The quartz regulation is known as the North Carolina High Purity Quartz Protection Act and aims to protect the state’s “vital mineral and economic resources.” It was passed as part of a larger regulatory reform bill covering a wide variety of updates.
A WIRED article by Vince Beiser said that the quartz mines in Spruce Pine are crucial to the production of advanced computer chips. Quartz from these mines is used to produce crucibles and is used in the production of silicon metals, semiconductors, optical fibers and circuit boards.
Local real-estate lawyer Michael Holmes said, “If local attorneys had to determine what property has high purity quartz or who was acting on behalf of an adversarial foreign government, real estate transactions may be seriously affected.”
However, the bill states that “an individual or other entity who is not an adversarial foreign government” bears “no civil or criminal liability” if they fail to “determine or make inquiry of whether an individual or other entity is an adversarial foreign government.” The responsibility of such a task “rests solely with the United States Secretary of Commerce and the State of North Carolina.”
According to Maxton Industrial, the leading companies in the market for high-purity quartz are Sibelco, Quartz Corp, and Pacific Quartz.
Sibelco, formerly known in the Mitchell area as Unimin, has been mining in the Spruce Pine area since 1970. The Quartz Corp was established in 2011 through a merging of multiple mining companies.
Both Sibelco and Quartz Corp are foreign companies, Sibelco being based in Belgium and The Quartz Corp being from Norway. Belgium and Norway are allied to the United States through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
According to the Maxton Industrial website, Sibelco has an absolute monopoly over the high-purity quartz sand industry, controlling prices and capturing up to 90 percent of the global market.
The Quartz Corp (TQC), which produces 30,000 tons of high-purity quartz annually, is the second largest producer of high-purity quartz.
Sibelco and TQC are followed by Pacific Quartz in the amount of product; a China-based company, Pacific Quartz was producing 20,000 tons of high-purity quartz annually in 2021.
While Sibelco holds the highest amount of global control, Pacific Quartz still dominates the high-purity quartz industry in some technology markets. Acquisition of lands containing high-purity quartz in Mitchell County could boost the company’s hold and influence on the local, state, and global markets.
A Business NC article quoted State Sen. Ralph Hise saying that there have been “multiple instances of trespassing by foreign nationals in the last year at the mines,” signaling the importance of protecting operations from foreign governments.
The North Carolina High Purity Quartz Protection Act is designed to prohibit foreign adversaries from acquiring high-purity quartz resources and make any transfer of an interest in land or a mining operation to a foreign adversary void.
Foreign governments deemed as adversaries to the United States include China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Venezuela.