Spruce Pine, North Carolina has no running water or electricity, more than a week after Helene ripped through the town of 2,200. Mines in Spruce Pine produce the world’s purest form of quartz, which plays a central role in chip manufacturing. Now, the town’s exceedingly valuable supply of high-purity quartz is at risk, threatening to cripple the $600 billion global semiconductor industry. “The Spruce Pine community has been hit particularly hard,” Sibelco said in a statement on Sept. 30. For the semiconductor industry, the challenges that any long-term disruption to the Spruce Pine mines would present cannot be overstated, experts say.

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Persons: Hurricane Helene, Helene, ” Sibelco, “, ”, Lita Shon, Roy, Spencer Bost, “ it’s, Shon, ” Shon, Dustin Mulvaney, ” Mulvaney Organizations: Mines, Quartz Corp, National Weather Service, Downtown, San Jose State University Locations: Hurricane, Spruce Pine , North Carolina, China, Asia, North Carolina, “, Downtown Spruce