Spruce Pine: Gem of a town in North Carolina that powers world's tech

Business Standard

2 days ago

The jagged ridges in the green mountains above Spruce Pine look strange at first, as if they were scratched into the surface by giant claws. From afar, visitors sometimes confuse them for snow.
In fact, they are mines that hold some of the world's purest quartz, a smoky gray mineral that is essential for manufacturing silicon wafers that eventually become computer chips in smartphones and other high-tech products.
No other place on Earth has as much or as minable pure quartz as Spruce Pine, in western North Carolina. It's a geological Goldilocks, as raw minerals are in high demand and China is tightening its grip on mineral exports in its trade war with the Trump administration.
Two European companies operate the mines with much secrecy, and are responsible for almost the entire global market of high-purity quartz, according to industry experts.
But entering Spruce Pine, a town of about 2,000 people where narrow roads wind past stone-clad houses, this reputation is hard to glean. Residents call it 'Mineral City,' preferring to talk more about their strong mining traditions and their almost spiritual connection to the gems that have provided jobs for generations.
Quartz is just one of many minerals — there is also mica, feldspar and kaolin — that have kept the area economically relevant for centuries, and that will continue to sustain the region no matter the geopolitical climate, mine workers and local officials say.
There is a saying in town that pieces of Spruce Pine can be found all over the world.
'No one else has what's here,' said Patti Jensen, a consultant for the county's chamber of commerce, pointing toward the ashen peaks.
'The story of the earth'
Spruce Pine's story began with a crash hundreds of millions of years ago. The African and North American continents collided, melting rocks miles below the surface. Over millions of years, they cooled and crystallized deep underground away from water, forming minerals essentially free of impurities.
The formation of the Appalachian Mountains eventually brought the minerals closer to the surface, creating a diverse deposit around Spruce Pine, about 35 miles northeast of Asheville.
Today, local 'rock hounds' are everywhere and easy to spot. These collectors scan the ground, their hands calloused from digging and poking the saw-toothed surfaces. Some believe the rocks have spiritual properties, and claim the area radiates a tingling force.
'There are very many metaphysical people that have moved here because of this,' said Mabel Benjamin, the owner of Rocks and Things, a mineral store downtown. She and many of her customers wonder if the shop itself projects an imperceptible energy.
'We got a lot of stones that have a lot of 'power,'' she said, using air quotes because she has not totally bought into the idea. (Her business, however, does advertise 'stones for healing.')
Even for those who don't believe, there is still a magical allure to Spruce Pine's vast collection: kyanite, with a blue hue as crisp as a crayon; hyalite opal, which glows bright green under fluorescent lights and looks like something that could take down Superman; thulite dusted with bright bursts of hibiscus-pink sparkles.
At Emerald Village, an attraction where visitors can mine for gems, Gus Schabilion, 23, wore overalls as he glanced at the ground. He inherited his rock-hound identity from his great-grandfather, who opened Emerald Village in the 1980s. The mines there were last in operation in the mid-1960s.
In high school, Mr. Schabilion said, many of his friends' parents worked at the quartz mines. He was proud to live in an area so vital to the global production of technology. But Mr. Schabilion said he was just as content to spot a sliver of sea-green amazonite.
'It's the story of the earth, the story of us and our relationship with it. And it kind of puts everything into perspective,' he said, twirling a piece of amazonite in his fingers. 'This all formed 380 to 400 million years ago. There's just something kind of humbling about it.'
A secretive process
On a breezy spring day, expensive machinery extracted, cleaned and transformed tons of raw quartz into sandlike grains that were being prepared for transport.
The two companies that operate the mines are The Quartz Corp, which is French-Norwegian owned; and Sibelco, which is Belgian-owned, larger and responsible for 70 to 90 percent of the market share of high-purity quartz, according to experts.
Spruce Pine isn't the only place in the world with a large quartz deposit; Norway has some, as do Brazil, Russia and Australia. What sets Sibelco apart, industry experts say, is that it has been around for decades and has refined its extraction and purification processes. That advantage, combined with the fortune of having access to such pure quartz, has allowed Sibelco to dominate the market.
Both companies are secretive about their processes, and have declined most requests to visit their operations. Rick Singleton, the director of production mining at Sibelco, was hesitant to divulge information about that process in an interview, describing it as 'rigorous' yet 'proprietary.'
Was it true, as some residents claimed, that repairmen had been told to put on blindfolds before entering the facility?
No, Mr. Singleton said, 'it is all exaggeration.'
Do people who see the facilities have to sign nondisclosure agreements? Yes, he said.
Before the mines were sold to deep-pocketed European companies, they were owned and operated by American companies decades ago. Alex Glover, a retired geologist who used to work for one of the quartz companies, said some residents had complained in past years about the European owners not being part of the community.
But after Hurricane Helene swept through the area last year, the companies helped with recovery efforts by donating money and materials for rebuilding roads. Since then, Mr. Glover said, 'there's no real animosity.'
Together, Sibelco and The Quartz Corp have created hundreds of jobs. The median household income in Mitchell County, which includes Spruce Pine, is about $58,000. But miners make more than $80,000, and many of the companies' workers make more than $100,000, local officials said.
There's little anxiety about those jobs going away. Sibelco's mines have enough quartz to last at least another century, and likely significantly longer, Mr. Singleton said.
But China remains a concern, as the country has tightened its rare earth exports that are just as crucial to tech, said Murray Lines, the founding director of Stratum Resources, an independent minerals consultancy company based in Australia.
Mr. Lines, who has studied the Chinese minerals industry, says they have been annoyed 'that they haven't found something as good as Spruce Pine.'
In April, Chinese officials announced they had discovered their own high-purity quartz on their mainland, according to the country's ministry of natural resources. But it is difficult to gauge the validity of China's claims, or the quality of its deposit, Mr. Lines said. Even if it were true, it would take years for China to build a purification facility for the quartz, he said — and even then, it may not be as high quality.
Still, President Trump's tariff strategy may be bad for Spruce Pine in the long run, said Scott Young, a director for the consultancy Eurasia Group and an expert on critical minerals.
'Not only are you going to have China looking for alternatives to high-purity quartz,' he said, 'you're also going to have other countries looking to reduce their supply chain dependence on the United States, because the U.S. has signaled under the current administration that it is not a reliable trade partner.'
Spruce Pine has more urgent issues at hand. The town is still rebuilding from Helene, tourism is down and many stores that flooded during the storm remain closed.
But seeing the mines on the mountains, residents and workers say they are reminded that their largest economic engine is still intact.
As a recent rainstorm subsided, Mr. Glover, the retired geologist, sat in a chair at his mountainside home, looking out at a clear view of the land with awe. 'How could this world-class commodity of a super valuable material be in this small area?' he asked. 'That's magic.'