The reporter learned from the Ministry of Natural Resources today (10th) that the "Announcement of Newly Discovered Minerals" was recently released, which identified a new mineral species - high-purity quartz ore. Its emergence will change the previous situation of high dependence on imports and help the high-quality development of related strategic emerging industries.

△ High purity quartz ore

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, the new mineral species identified this time is called high-purity quartz ore, which refers to the rock that can be obtained through beneficiation and purification with a purity of not less than 8.0% silica, and the content of impurities and inclusions meets the application requirements of high-tech fields such as semiconductors and photovoltaics. In recent years, China has promoted a new round of prospecting breakthrough strategic actions, found a number of high-purity quartz mines in Henan East Qinling, Xinjiang Altay and other regions, and a number of enterprises and scientific research units across the country have carried out technical research, and successfully obtained 0N0 or above pilot products, some samples have reached 0N0 level, and important breakthroughs have been made in the investigation and evaluation of high-purity quartz ore, resource exploration, deep purification, directional impurity removal, etc., and a key step has been taken in promoting the industrialization of high-purity quartz sand produced by local resources.

△ High pure quartz sand

Mao Jingwen, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that the establishment of new minerals is conducive to the high-quality development of related strategic emerging industries, and will have a positive impact on the cultivation and development of new quality productivity, and the improvement of the resilience and safety of the industrial chain and supply chain. As a strategic emerging industry that is scarce in the world and highly dependent on imports in China, high-purity quartz ore has the characteristics of high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, low thermal expansion, high insulation and light transmittance, and is an indispensable key basic material for strategic emerging industries such as semiconductors and photovoltaics, and plays a vital role in the national high-tech competition.

Huang Xuexiong, director of the Department of Mineral Resources Protection and Supervision of the Ministry of Natural Resources, said that high-purity quartz ore as a key basic material for strategic emerging industries, the next main thing is to include high-purity quartz ore in the catalogue of strategic emerging industry resources, build a high-purity quartz resource development and utilization engineering technology innovation center, carry out metallogenic theory and exploration and evaluation technology, separation and purification technology and other scientific and technological research, coordinate the national resource investigation and evaluation work, deploy key exploration projects, identify high-purity quartz ore resource reserves, and enhance domestic resource guarantee capabilities. (CCTV reporter Cui Xia, Yang Xiao, Wu Tianbai)

Source: Central Television News Users