The reporter learned from the Ministry of Natural Resources on April 10 that the "New Mineral Discovery Species Announcement" was recently released, which identified a new mineral type - high-purity quartz mine. Its emergence will change the previous situation of high reliance on imports and help the high-quality development of related strategic emerging industries.

High-purity quartz ore ore

The Ministry of Natural Resources stated that the new ore determined this time is called high-purity quartz ore, which refers to rocks whose purity of silica can be obtained by ore dressing and purification, and whose impurity and inclusion content meet the application requirements of semiconductors and photovoltaics and other high-tech fields. In recent years, my country has promoted a new round of breakthrough strategic actions in mineral exploration, and has discovered many high-purity quartz mines in the eastern Qinling Mountains in Henan, Altay, Xinjiang and other regions. Many enterprises and scientific research institutions across the country have carried out technical research and successfully obtained pilot products of level 4N5 or above. Some samples have reached level 4N8, and have made important breakthroughs in high-purity quartz mine investigation and evaluation, resource exploration, deep purification, and targeted miscellaneous removal. It has taken a key step in promoting the industrialization of high-purity quartz sand production in local resources.

High-purity quartz sand

Mao Jingwen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that the establishment of new ore species will help the high-quality development of related strategic emerging industries, and will have a positive impact on cultivating and developing new quality productivity, improving the resilience and safety level of the industrial chain and supply chain. As a world-scarce strategic resource and my country is highly dependent on imports, high-purity quartz ore has the characteristics of high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, low thermal expansion, high insulation and light transmission. It is an indispensable key basic material for strategic emerging industries such as semiconductors and photovoltaics, and plays a crucial role in the national high-tech competition.

Huang Xuexiong, Director of the Mineral Resources Protection Supervision Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources, said that as a key basic material for strategic emerging industries, high-purity quartz ore is mainly included in the strategic mineral resource catalog, build a high-purity quartz resource development and utilization engineering technology innovation center, carry out scientific and technological research on mineralization theory and exploration and evaluation technology, separation and purification technology, etc., coordinate the national resource survey and evaluation work, deploy key exploration projects, identify the resource reserves of high-purity quartz ore, and improve domestic resource guarantee capabilities. (CCTV reporters Cui Xia, Yang Xiao, Wu Tianbai)