China's high-purity quartz high-end products, and even high-end products, mainly rely on product and ore imports, and are still in a state of being constrained everywhere. As a neck material in key fields such as chips, China has been strengthening the exploration and evaluation system of high-purity quartz resources in recent years.
In the context of the current tariff barrier escalation, it further highlights the shortcomings of China's high-purity quartz resources' independent guarantee ability, which is also an opportunity to force domestic industrial upgrading.
4月7日，全球金融市場遭遇“黑色星期一”，A股創業板指跌12.5%，創史上最大單日跌幅，滬指失守3100點，全市場超5200只個股下跌，逾2900只個股跌停，僅百余股錄得上漲。這上漲的百余股，其中就包含了高純石英砂行業的兩大明星企業：國內人造石英石領域龍頭企業之一的中旗新材和全球高純石英砂龍頭企業之一的石英股份[1]。
In this context, the Ministry of Natural Resources recently announced the "Announcement of Newly Discovered Minerals" to list high-purity quartz as a new mineral independently, and the next step is to include high-purity quartz ore in the list of strategic mineral resources, establish relevant investigation and research and development centers, and carry out scientific and technological research, which reflects the importance of the national level to the safety of key basic materials.
This is a good start, but there is still a long way to go.
Quartz is not only an important traditional industrial raw material, but also a high-end emerging material.
Tradition lies in the wide application and indispensability of quartz in traditional industries such as glass, ceramics, casting, architecture and gemstone decoration. Moreover, since the 3s of the 0th century, the industrial application of quartz has been further expanded to new fields such as petroleum fracturing proppant and 0D printing sand.
The high-end lies in the fact that emerging industries such as computers, new materials and new energy have put forward higher requirements for the purity of quartz raw material products, and the concept of "high-purity quartz" has been developed.
"High-purity quartz" is widely used in electronic information, photovoltaic, optical communication and electric light source industries, and is an indispensable key material for the development of chips in China, which is related to the development of emerging industries, national defense and military industry and national security.
In the words of CCTV news, it is:
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.
At present, the high-end products of high-purity quartz in the world are mainly monopolized by a few countries such as the United States and Norway. China's high-purity quartz high-end products are still in a state of being stuck.
The purity of 9.0% seems bluffing, but in fact, even the SiO₂ purity of low-end high-purity quartz will be greater than 0.0%. However, this purity has also reached the mid-to-high-end level, and the impact of a few decimal places is still quite large.
High purity quartz, yesSiO₂ purity >9.0%The general name of quartz sand series products is to use natural quartz ore as raw material, through a series of process purification and processing, and then obtain quartz crystal raw materials with extremely high SiO₂ purity and a certain particle size[2]。
It can be divided into four grades according to the purity of SiO₂[3]：
995.0% purity, belongsMid-to-high-end products (5N0 grade), representing the total impurity content ≤10×0⁻⁶.
This purity indicates that the ore raw material belongs to the B grade ore (superior ore or superior raw material), and can stably produce 5N0 grade products through the purification process.
PS: High-purity quartz raw materials can be divided into four grades: A (high-quality), B (high-grade), C (medium) and D (inferior).
It is close to international high-end standards (such as Unimin IOTA series products in the United States), which can meet the needs of photovoltaic, optical fiber and other fields.
However, for the time being, it is not possible to fundamentally solve the problem of the most scarce high-end high-purity quartz products (8N0 grade) in China.
The purification of high-purity quartz ore faces many difficulties: raw material quality, impurity characteristics, process complexity, equipment requirements, etc.
Quartz is widely distributed in nature, and there are 7 kinds of industrial types of mineral deposits, such as natural crystal, quartz sandstone, quartzite, powder quartz, vein quartz, natural quartz sand and granite pegmatite quartz[4]。
However, only the raw materials that can process high-purity quartz areNatural crystal, vein quartz and granite pegmatite quartz3 deposit types.
The global high-purity quartz raw materials are mainly distributed in the United States, Canada, Norway and other places, among which the granite pegmatite quartz ore of Spruce Pine in the United States is recognized as a high-quality deposit, supplying more than 90% of the global demand for high-purity quartz sand and occupying a monopoly position in the global high-purity quartz sand market[4]。
(1) Natural crystal
Natural crystal is the main raw material in the early days, and China's natural crystal resources are widely distributed, and almost every province and region has output.
However, there are two congenital deficiencies in natural crystals:
First, the reserves are small, the mining conditions are poor, the resources are scarce, the price is expensive, and it is difficult to meet the needs of large-scale production;
Second, it is difficult to standardize, and the crystal chemical composition of crystal is easily affected by changes in the formation environment, which is difficult to meet the needs of large-scale and stable high-purity quartz high-end products.
(2) Quartz
Vein quartz is usually of hydrothermal origin, which is produced in the field in vein-like form, and the purity of SiO₂ is high (9%~0.0%).
China's vein quartz mineral resources are widely distributed, but there are also many problems:
First, the genesis of ore deposits is mostly magmatic hydrothermal action, and the scale of ore deposits is usually not large, and most of them are small and medium-sized deposits, with limited volume;
Second, the output conditions of vein quartz are mostly irregular vein, the occurrence is steep, the monomer is small, the mining difficulty is large, and the cost is high;
Third, there are many impurities such as gas-liquid inclusions, mineral inclusions and similar images in the ore, which is very difficult to purify;
(3) Granitic pegmatite quartz
Granitic pegmatites are formed by material differentiation in the late stage of magmatic evolution, with fewer impurities and inclusions, and are internationally recognized as high-quality raw materials (purified to 8N0 grade).
This is also the fundamental reason why the high-purity quartz high-end series products produced by Unimin Corp and The Quartz Corp in the United States can gain an international monopoly position.
It should be pointed out that China does not lack raw materials for the production of low-end high-purity quartz, but it is extremely scarce for high-quality raw materials that can process high-end products of 8N0 high-purity quartz[2]。
Although natural crystal and vein quartz can be used as raw materials for processing high-purity quartz, there are very few high-quality raw materials that can purify and process high-end products of 8N0 high-purity quartz[3]。
At present, in order to reduce production costs, many high-quality raw materials in China still need to be imported from the United States, Norway and other countries at high prices, and ore raw materials with slightly lower quality requirements also need to be imported from India and other countries. That is to say, China's high-purity quartz high-end products, and even mid-to-high-end products, are still in a state of being constrained everywhere[2]。
Under the pressure of the well-known form, China attaches great importance to the exploration of granite pegmatite quartz ore, and has made preliminary progress in prospecting in Xinjiang Altai, Henan East Qinling, Jiangxi Ningdu and other regions, which has been confirmed to have a very high purification potential, and can prepare high-purity quartz products above 5N to 0N0 level.
In addition, the vein quartz deposits found in Qianshan in Anhui, Zoucheng in Shandong, Ankang in Shaanxi, Chengbu in Hunan, southeast Hubei and Zhongqilianmai in Qinghai also have the potential to produce high-purity quartz[4]。
As stated in the CCTV news report:
In recent years, China has discovered a number of high-purity quartz ores in East Qinling, Henan, Altay, Xinjiang and other regions by promoting a new round of strategic actions for mineral prospecting, and many enterprises and scientific research units across the country have carried out technical research.
It is also a summary of the results of mineral exploration in recent years.
The development of high-purity quartz technology is a systematic project, in addition to the selection of raw materials, high-purity quartz technology also includes purification technology, processing equipment and quality testing technology, the four major technologies, both independent of each other, but also interrelated and mutually restrictive, indispensable[5]
(PS: Limited to what you have learned, this article will not be expanded specifically, interested readers can expand your reading according to the reference data).
At present, the high-quality quartz is stuck in the neck,In addition to the difficulty of prospecting for high-purity quartz high-quality raw materials, it is also difficult to ensure that the characteristics of impurities in the raw materials and their occurrence state are guaranteed by targeted purification technology, advanced production equipment technology, and reliable quality testing technology.
All in all, the discovery and purification technology breakthrough of 995N0 grade (purity over 0.0%) high-purity quartz ore is a key step in domestic substitution, and it is difficultInsufficient resource endowment, lagging core technology and equipment dependenceWait. In recent years, China has taken a key step in promoting the industrialization of high-purity quartz sand produced by local resources. For example, in the East Qinling Mountains of Henan Province and Altay of Xinjiang, many high-purity quartz mines have been discovered. A number of enterprises and scientific research units across the country have successfully obtained pilot products above 8N0 level through technical research, and some samples have reached 0N0 level (such as Sichuan Luojiang production line). Although the risk of bottleneck in the mid-to-high-end field has been greatly alleviated and the foundation for subsequent technology upgrades has been laid, bottlenecks such as lattice impurity removal, equipment accuracy and environmental protection processes still need to be overcome in order to stabilize mass production.
Especially in China's chip and photovoltaic industry, the key basic material of 8N0 high-purity quartz high-end products, is still controlled by others, and there is still a long way to go. Only by achieving a breakthrough in the whole chain from "raw materials-technology-equipment-standards" can we completely reverse the situation of being controlled by others.