China finds rare mineral to rival US in semiconductor chips production

China has reportedly discovered new deposits of high-purity quartz, a mineral that plays a small but important role in the production of semiconductors and solar panels. 

The country’s Ministry of Natural Resources revealed this in an announcement on Thursday, days after the government implemented a ban on the exporting of some rare earth materials.

Prior to the ban, the US dominated the market for high-purity quartz, with the bulk of global production centered around a single town in North Carolina. The Chinese discovered its stash of high-purity quartz several years ago, but it put off revealing it until now.

The curious timing of China’s discovery announcement

The timing of the announcement aligns with Beijing’s efforts to reduce and possibly eliminate whatever leverage the US may have over China in the trade war.

According to the State-backed Xinhua News Service, the discovery has the potential to help China secure supply lines for the Chinese high-tech industry.

As earlier stated, the deposits were discovered long before the reveal. The ministry claims it was found in Henan, central China in December 2020, then again in Xinjiang in the west in October 2021. Any information on the quantity found or the time and money that might be required to develop them into productive mines was withheld.

Regardless of the cost or other factors like time, the discovery is a big win for China as it will be able to produce its own high-purity quartz in time, eventually becoming a competitor for the market share the US currently has a monopoly on.

High-purity quartz is a crucial component in both the solar and semiconductor industries. It is used to make the inner layer in crucibles that produce ultra-refined polysilicon wafers.

Two mines located near the town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, currently account for over 80% of the world’s supply of commercial high-purity quartz, but that may soon change.

How China is using rare earth minerals in its trade war with the US

Trump’s tariffs are clearly here to stay, and while many countries worried about the fallout have been scrambling to negotiate terms, China, arguably a world superpower, is retaliating with tariffs of its own. It has even deployed rare earth minerals as a weapon. It is a big deal considering the country is the world’s largest supplier of rare minerals, which comprise 17 elements in the periodic table.

As part of its retaliation against President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on imported Chinese goods, Beijing said on Friday that it plans to tighten controls on the exports of seven types of rare earths, including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium.

Tariff wars pic.twitter.com/DQD8RDl3Dt

— Russian Embassy in Kenya/Посольство России в Кении (@russembkenya) April 8, 2025

The stock market reacted positively to the news, with related stocks, like those of China Rare Earth Holdings Ltd., rising as much as 10% in Hong Kong.

The vice-like grip China has on a host of niche commodities is one of the things that make the country’s existence and growth a necessity. The Chinese government is well aware of this and has wielded it as a potential geopolitical weapon effective against even America because of its reliance on Chinese supplies.

Beijing had already rolled out similar curbs on other critical minerals, such as gallium, germanium, graphite and antimony, over the past two years due to rising trade tensions.

While the latest export controls aren’t a blanket ban, they do mean that any overseas shipments from here on out will be subject to more scrutiny over who is buying, and why. In the past when China enforced similar export controls on other metals, those metals saw export volumes crash to zero as exporters needed time to get certified.

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