the internet is material: north carolina lithium and silicon mines
hurricane helene, quartz sand mines, lithium mines, conspiracy theorists
Towards the end of my essay on Timeless Infinite Light, I alluded to the importance of lithium to the smooth operation internet. It was too far afield from the poetry I was talking about to go into any depth, but I wanted to flag it as something to return. I’ve been working on a larger, more comprehensive, more systematic, series on the subject of lithium, and plan on debuting it soon. In the meantime, I wanted to write about quartz and lithium mines in North Carolina and the way that Hurricane Helene has laid bare the materiality of the internet.
The internet is material. It’s easy, I think, to think of the internet as something immaterial, something that transcends materiality, something that exists entirely in the cloud. We don’t see the wires, we don’t see the energy sources. However, the internet is material and it is fragile. It relies on fragile infrastructures and materials mined in hyperspecific places. If one of these chokepoints were to be damaged, it could take down large portions of the internet.
Take for example the effect of Hurricane Helene on quartz mining in Spruce Pine, North Carolina. This post at Material World, “What’s Happening at Spruce Pine”, outlines the importance of Spruce Pine in the production of silicon quartz used in microchips:
a small town in North Carolina which, unbeknownst even to many residents, is one of the most important locations in the global economy, for a very simple reason. It is responsible for the production of the vast majority of the high purity quartz sand used to make the silicon wafers which go on to become semiconductors and solar panels.
The importance of Spruce Pine is echoed in this NPR article.
Semiconductors are the brains of every computer-chip-enabled device, and solar panels are a key part of the global push to combat climate change. To make both semiconductors and solar panels, companies need crucibles and other equipment that both can withstand extraordinarily high heat and be kept absolutely clean. One material fits the bill: quartz. Pure quartz.
Quartz that comes, overwhelmingly, from Spruce Pine.
(from https://www.npr.org/2024/09/30/nx-s1-5133462/hurricane-helene-quartz-microchips-solar-panels-spruce-pine)
This quartz sand is essential to the operation of smartphones and laptops, and somewhere between 70-90% of this quartz sand is mined in Spruce Point, NC.
Spruce Pine was devastated by heavy flooding during Hurricane Helene in September. In addition to the personal devastation that the hurricane wreaked, the devastation has halted mining at the quartz sand mine. Since the Spruce Point mines produce most-to-nearly-all of the worlds quartz sand, any shut-down of the mine will greatly disrupt the semiconductor supply chain, with wide ranging consequences.
This is to say, the continued operation of the internet is reliant on a material that is mined nearly entirely in a single place. The internet is made of the material that powers it. The internet is made of quartz sand and that quartz sand is mined in Spruce Pine, NC. The material of the internet is fragile and vulnerable to natural disasters.
The quartz sand mines seem to have only garnered minor news coverage and have not seized the public imagination the way last year’s semiconductor supply chain issues did. However, North Carolina mines for other materials essential in the operation of the internet have. In the wake of Hurricane Helene, conspiracy theories have sprouted up that the hurricane is a man-made disaster created to allow FEMA to seize North Carolina’s lithium mines.
Unlike quartz sand, there are no active lithium mines in North Carolina, and there hasn’t been since 1988, since The Albemarle Corporation closed the the King Mountain mine. However, due to recent rise in the demand for lithium, this likely to change. Albemarle was awarded a $90 million dollar grant from the Department of Justice to resume mining lithium. A September 12, 2023 press release by the Department of Justice announcing the partnership says.
"The agreement with Albemarle demonstrates the DoD's ongoing commitment to meeting the needs of our warfighter, today and in the future.
In May 2024 Piedmont Lithium announced plans to begin mining lithium in North Carolina, under the Carolina Lithium project.
The proliferation of conspiracy theories after Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton is dangerous and putting more people at risk. Armed militia are going around threatening emergency workers. Donald Trump himself is doubling down on these conspiracy theories.
As stupid as they are though, the lithium mine conspiracy taps into real anxieties. I am sure that the vultures of disaster capital are already circling the sites of these hurricanes, and I’m sure they have their eyes on sites for potential lithium mines. Natural disasters are a great opportunity to buy up land. The shock doctrine laid out by Naomi Klein will come to North Carolina and capital, with or without the support of local, state, and federal governments will take advantage. There’s a lot of money to be made in the exploitation of disaster. The type of people who own mines have never wasted a good crisis.
And in regards to man made, well, no reasonable person can deny that the intensity of Hurricane Helene, why it was able to reach all the way to North Carolina, is because of made-made climate change. Lithium, like quartz sand, is increasingly becoming part of that story. Lithium battery electric vehicles may be more energy efficient and produce less greenhouse gas emissions than gas powered cars, but lithium mining still has a significant impact on the environment.
The conspiracy, as always, is the conspiracy of capital.
The Material World: What’s Happening at Spruce Pine
The Business Download: North Carolina’s Lithium Industry is Suddenly Hot Again
Department of Defense Memo Sept 12, 2023
Piedmont Lithium Press Release
WRAL: Fact check: Is government seizing North Carolina lithium after Helene?
NPR: A tiny town just got slammed by Helene. It could massively disrupt the tech industry