Could not even be the cheapest, Just the refinement process was developed for this particular sand. A different sand might have different impurities and need different processes to handle.

If the particular impurities of this source can be chelated out with safer or cheaper chemicals, maybe in fewer steps, then the cost goes down.

Of course jurisdictions with poor worker conditions can just use the less safe chemicals and externalize the human toll instead of using more complex safety procedures.

Almost all our modern tech has extremely long tails measured in decades.

It's basic economics to exploit one source for as long as possible before feasibility changes, but that's a hard argument to make for anyone, even the most experienced personnel because it's all so site specific.

>> and 70% of the world's supply comes from just one place in North Carolina

> A quick search seems to say there are more places available for getting that than North Carolina.

I mean, I deduced it straight from “70%”.

I'm pretty sure the implied argument is that, while this source currently supplies 70% of the total, we aren't actually dependent on it - i.e. production could be scaled up elsewhere.

Availability, production scale, and knowledge base.

I think things will probably pan out okay, maybe a rough month or two as roads (even if rough cut new logging roads), utilities, and prioritized community services get fixed up. Synthetic option is available, apparently, just a bit costly.

Yeah, this is being overblown. It may very well be that there will be a short term constriction as competitors ramp, but to argue that this is some kind of fundamental bottleneck in semiconductor production is ridiculous.

It's quartz: literally the single most common crystal on the surface of the planet. Now, sure, I'm sure this particular mine had great stuff, but it's not like it's hard to find.

No, surely what we have here is a single source provider precisely because the material is so cheap to mine (and therefore unprofitable to try to compete with from scratch).

You're right, but I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes a bottleneck at least for a few months, generating a lot of headaches for some companies.