Photo: CCTV

China recently discovered a new mineral species — high-purity quartz, the CCTV News reported on Thursday, saying that this discovery is expected to reduce the country's heavy reliance on imports and support the high-quality development of related strategic emerging industries such as semiconductors and photovoltaics.

Citing the Ministry of Natural Resources, the report said the newly designated mineral species is called high-purity quartz, referring to rock that can be processed and purified to obtain silicon dioxide with a purity of no less than 99.995 percent. The impurity and inclusion levels must meet the stringent requirements of high-tech fields such as semiconductors and photovoltaics.

Mao Jingwen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was quoted as saying in the CCTV News report that the establishment of this new mineral species will contribute to the high-quality development of related strategic emerging industries. 

It will have a positive impact on fostering new productive forces, as well as enhancing the resilience and security of industrial and supply chains, the media report said. 

As a strategic resource that is both rare globally and highly dependent on imports in China, high-purity quartz is characterized by its high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, low thermal expansion, high insulation, and transparency. It is an indispensable key material for strategic emerging industries such as semiconductors and photovoltaics, playing a crucial role in the nation's high-tech competition, according to the media report.

In recent years, through the implementation of a new round of strategic mineral exploration campaigns, multiple high-purity quartz deposits have been discovered in regions such as eastern Qinling in Central China's Henan Province and Altay in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Numerous enterprises and research institutions across China have tackled key technical challenges, successfully producing pilot-scale products reaching 4N5 grade purity, with some samples even achieving 4N8 grade, according to the media report. 

Major breakthroughs have been made in areas such as resource assessment, exploration, deep purification, and targeted impurity removal. These advances mark a critical step toward the industrialization of domestically sourced high-purity quartz sand, the CCTV News said. 

As a key foundational material for strategic emerging industries, high-purity quartz will be included in the list of strategic mineral resources, Huang Xuexiong, director of the department of mineral resources protection and supervision at the ministry, was quoted as saying in the report. 

The next steps will involve establishing an engineering and technology innovation center for high-purity quartz resource development and utilization, focusing on scientific and technological breakthroughs in ore-forming theory, exploration and evaluation techniques, as well as separation and purification technologies. A nationwide resource survey and evaluation will be coordinated, with key exploration projects deployed to determine the resource reserves of high-purity quartz and enhance domestic resource security, Huang said. 


Global Times