Quartz deposits are common in nature but the presence of quartz suitable for yielding high purity
quartz is exceedingly rare. This paper describes a test work study on producing high purity quartz
(HPQ) product to meet the tight product specifications of greater than 99.97per cent, including four
and even five nines, for uses including, lighting and fibre optics and modern-day high efficiency solar
panels. Due to demand in renewable energy applications the market for high purity silica solar panels
known for their increasing efficiency and durability is rapidly growing.
Demand continues to rise for the use of high purity quartz in semiconductors, electronics, imaging
and sensor markets. Microelectronic components are created by chemically fabricating wafers of
semiconductors such as silicon to obtain the desired transport of electrical charge and control of the
current. The production of silicon metal from high purity quartz has been designated a Strategic
Mineral by the European Commission and by the US Department of Justice due to the growing
significance of this metal in various industries. The subsequent processing of quartz is the key step
to adding value and aiding technological advances. Overall, the high purity quartz market is a highly
secretive, specialised market with increasing opportunities for stakeholders.
The attempt to produce HPQ in this work was carried out using an Australian quartz ore following a
typical HPQ process flow sheet. The unit processes included primary crushing, scrubbing, magnetic
separation, flotation, acid leaching followed by hot chlorination. The results indicate that grinding of
quartz requires specialist equipment due to the hardness and extreme abrasiveness of the ore
leading to additional iron contamination in the ground ore. The critical impurities were aluminium,
iron, sodium, potassium, lithium, titanium, zircon, calcium and magnesium. The chemical refining
was found effective. The hot chlorination process needed to be done at 1200°C in a chlorine –
hydrogen chloride gas atmosphere. The risk of any gas being released during this stage is very
serious and only specialist companies should and can carry out this step. More recent studies
reported many new options that appear to facilitate the production of HPQ with the requisite purities
more easily, but costly equipment along with highly trained operators are required and hence unlikely
to become available in standard metallurgical laboratories any time soon.