High-Purity Quartz: A Review of Global Resources, Beneficiation Chemistry, Underexplored Feedstocks, and Market Dynamics

High-purity quartz (HPQ)—silica with absolute purity exceeding 99.99% SiO₂ (4N) and, for the most demanding grades, 99.999% SiO₂ (5N+)—is a foundational critical material for the semiconductor, photovoltaic, fibre-optic, and high-temperature optical industries. This review integrates two complementary bodies of work into a single account of the HPQ value chain: a detailed technical synthesis of beneficiation and chemical purification operations (comminution, sensor-based sorting, magnetic separation, flotation, thermal quenching, hydrometallurgical leaching, and chlorination roasting, including reaction kinetics and thermodynamic constraints), and a broader treatment of global feedstock geology, product specification, an underexplored regional feedstock opportunity in Madagascar and Mozambique, synthetic sol-gel alternatives, global and Indian demand-supply dynamics, and a scoping-level investment case for a synthetic ultra-high-purity silica plant in India. Together these strands connect the mineralogy and chemistry of HPQ production to the commercial and strategic questions that determine where, and how, new HPQ-grade capacity might realistically be built.

High-Purity Quartz (HPQ); Mineral Beneficiation; Hydrometallurgical Leaching; Chlorination Roasting

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