Hurricane Helene’s devastation has blocked access to a one-of-a-kind mine for AI chips

Hurricane Helene has caused widespread devastation since it made landfall in the US last week.

A small town in North Carolina hit by Hurricane Helene is essential to producing the world’s semiconductors — and an expert said that any long-term damage to it risked disrupting global supply chains.

Spruce Pine is home to two mines that experts say are a key source of high-purity quartz. This crucial material is used to make the chips that power everything from smartphones to data centers.

It’s not clear whether the mines in Spruce Pine were affected by the hurricane that tore through North Carolina over the weekend and has left more than 100 people dead in the US since it made landfall last week.

But North Carolina’s live traffic map shows that nearby roads were affected by the storm.

“All roads in Western North Carolina should be considered closed, and non-emergency travel is prohibited,” an alert on the government site said on Monday.

It added: “There are many closed roads that are not listed on this site as many areas are not able to report at this time.”

According to the official website for Mitchell County, which includes the town of Spruce Pine, a road located a five-minute drive from the mines has been partially closed “due to a partial washout.”

Spruce Pine was hit by over two feet of rain between Tuesday and Saturday, according to the Associated Press.

A Facebook post from the local county government described the flooding as “catastrophic” and said a “good bit” of the county’s infrastructure had been destroyed or damaged by floodwater.

“We ask that you please limit unnecessary travel to conserve fuel and other resources,” the Spruce Pine Police Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, wrote in a Facebook update on Sunday.

Supply chain ‘pinch point’

The town’s quartz mining sites are run by two companies, Sibelco and Quartz Corp.

The two firms play a huge role in the global supply chain that ultimately ends in smartphones and powering cutting-edge AI systems.

The ultra-pure quartz mined at Spruce Pine is essential for making silicon wafers, a key component in semiconductors manufactured by the likes of Taiwanese tech firm TSMC.

On Monday, a spokesperson for Quartz Corp declined to comment on the hurricane’s impact and stated it was too early to assess any impact on quartz production. The spokesperson added that the company’s priority was people.

Sibelco did not respond to a request for comment.

Ed Conway, a Sky News journalist and author who has written a book about precious material supply chains, described the two mines as an “incredibly” important “pinch point” in the global supply chain.

He told B-17 that making silicon wafers requires melting down nearly pure silicon in a crucible made from high-purity quartz — of which the only large-scale source is the North Carolina mines.

“It’s the only place that we’ve discovered a very large resource of this particularly high-purity quartz,” he said.

“If we don’t have access to those mine for a long period of time, then the global supply of these silicon wafers is under threat,” Conway added.