A review of high-purity quartz for silicon production in Australia

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map of Australia highlighting known high-purity quartz (HPQ) operations, deposits, exploration targets and occurrences. Note that the HPQ information shown on the map is not exhaustive, and new deposits, exploration targets and occurrences are being discovered. Refer to Table 1 for further detail.

Table 1. Known Australian HPQ operating mines, deposits, exploration targets and occurrences.

Deposit	Company	State	Status	Deposit type	Resource/purity	Source
Granitic
Rockley		NSW	Deposit	Hydrothermal	464 kt up to 99.9 wt% SiO2	Stuart (2015)
Clear Creek		NSW	Occurrence	Hydrothermal	99.5 wt% SiO2	McClatchie (1995)
Dingo Hole	Verdant Minerals Ltd	NT	Occurrence	Hydrothermal	>99.94 wt% SiO2	Verdant Minerals (formerly Rum Jungle Resources) (2015)
Lighthouse^a	Hunter Bay Silica	Qld	Deposit	Hydrothermal	6 Mt @ 99.98 wt% SiO2	Queensland Government (2015)
HJ Reef	Cloncurry Industrial Minerals Pty Ltd	Qld	Deposit	Hydrothermal	6 Mt @ 99.5 wt% SiO2 inferred feedstock	Lava Blue (2024)
Sugarbag Hill	Ultra HPQ Ltd	Qld	Deposit	Hydrothermal	Strike length of 800 m > 2 Mt @ 99 wt% SiO2 with a JORC reserve of 1.2 Mt	Ultra HPQ (2024)
Douglas Range Project	Australian Silica Quartz Group Ltd	Qld	Exploration target	Hydrothermal	99.99 wt% SiO2 after beneficiation	Australian Silica Quartz (ASQ) (2021)
Mount Eliza	Australian Silica Quartz Group Ltd	Qld	Exploration target	Hydrothermal	Rock chips up to 99.98 wt% SiO2	Australian Silica Quartz (ASQ) (2021)
Quartz Hill	Australian Silica Quartz Group Ltd	Qld	Deposit	Hydrothermal	Resource of 17 Mt total at 99.04 wt% SiO2, of which 7.6 Mt indicated at 99.09 wt% SiO2 (per JORC 2012)	Australian Silica Quartz (ASQ) (2023)
Mt Grey	SolQuartz	Qld	Exploration target	Hydrothermal	Purity unknown	SolQuartz (2024)
White Ridge	SolQuartz	Qld	Exploration target	Hydrothermal	Purity unknown	SolQuartz (2024)
May Downs^a	Greentech Minerals Ltd	Qld	Deposit	Hydrothermal	JORC total measured, indicated and inferred resource of 388 kt @ 99.96 wt% SiO2	Greentech Minerals website 2024
Pandanus Creek Project	Australian Silica Quartz Group Ltd	Qld	Exploration target	Pegmatite	Rock chips up to 99.98 wt% SiO2. White Springs exposed outcrop of 4000 m^2—quartz core of zoned pegmatite	Australian Silica Quartz (ASQ) (2021)
Cromer ‘C’		SA	Occurrence	Hydrothermal	99.7 wt% SiO2	Keeling (1984)
Raven Hill South		SA	Occurrence	Hydrothermal	99.6 wt% SiO2	Keeling (1984)
Maldorky Hill		SA	Occurrence	Hydrothermal	Further assaying required	Keeling (1984)
White Hill		WA	Deposit	Hydrothermal	172 Kt @ 99.9 wt% SiO2	McNab (1991)
Lake Seabrook	Australian Silica Quartz Group Ltd	WA	Exploration target	Hydrothermal	Rock chip purity up to 99.98 wt% SiO2 after beneficiation. Vein 5 km strike length	Australian Silica Quartz (ASQ) (2022)
Warrawanda	VRX Silica	WA	Occurrence	Hydrothermal	99.95 wt% SiO2 rock chip sample	VRX Silica (2019)
Bonnie Rock SW	Corella Resources	WA	Exploration target	Hydrothermal	99.4 wt% SiO2 rock chip sample	Corella Resources (2021)
Karratha Project	Industrial Minerals	WA	Exploration target	Hydrothermal	Purity unknown. Awaiting results	Industrial Minerals ASX announcement 22/3/23
Pippingarra	Industrial Minerals	WA	Exploration target	Pegmatite	Potential resource of 1.5–3 Mt at 97–99 wt% SiO2, initial testing returned 99.994 wt%	Industrial Minerals ASX announcement 24/4/24
Potts Road	Australian Silica Quartz Group Ltd	WA	Occurrence	Pegmatite	HPQ within 15–20 m of surface	Abeysinghe (2003); Australian Silica Quartz (ASQ) (2024)
Karloning		WA	Exploration target	Pegmatite	99.7–99.8 wt% SiO2	Abeysinghe (2003)
Mukinbudin		WA	Exploration target	Pegmatite	391 Kt @ 98.8 wt% SiO2. Up 99.5 wt% SiO2	Abeysinghe (2003)
Calcaling		WA	Occurrence	Pegmatite	Historical assay results indicate HPQ	Abeysinghe (2003)
Metamorphic
Weld River		TAS	Occurrence	Quartzite	Estimated resource of >100 Mt at 99.3 wt% SiO2 (more testing needed)	Forster (1973)
Sedimentary
Moora	Simcoa Operations Pty Ltd	WA	Operating Mine	Chert	>2 Mt @ 99.4 wt% SiO2	Simcoa website 2020; Szymkowski and Bultitude-Paull (1992)
Kiaka Hills	Simcoa Operations Pty Ltd	WA	Deposit	Chert	Estimated resource of 2.34 Mt LoM >99 wt% SiO2	GHD (2022)
Alluvial
Creswick^a	Creswick Quartz Ltd	VIC	Deposit	Aggregate	99.99 wt% SiO2	Jeffries (2010)
Glenella^a	Glenella Quarry Pty Ltd	NSW	Deposit	Aggregate	99.8 wt% SiO2	Border (2000)

^aSelected deposits discussed in the paper owing to available information.

Table 2. Common polymorphs of the SiO₂ system, including minerals and mineraloids (modified after Götze, 2012).

	Form	Crystal symmetry
Atmospheric and low pressure	Low (α) quartz	Trigonal
	High (β) quartz	Hexagonal
	Tridymite	Monoclinic
	Cristobalite	Tetragonal
High and ultra-high pressure	Coesite	Monoclinic
	Stishovite	Tetragonal
Amorphous	Opal	H2O-bearing, solid SiO2 gel

Figure 2. Simplified production chain showing high-purity quartz applications, including feedstock for silicon production: carbothermic reduction of silica to metallurgical grade silicon (Si_MG); refinement of Si_MG by Siemens or Fluidised Bed Reactor (FBR) producing polycrystalline silicon; and conversion into a single crystal ingot using the Czochralski (CZ) process resulting in monocrystalline silicon. End applications of silica products are shown in purple. Note this process flow represents the most common methods used in the production of high-purity silicon and is not an exhaustive list of all processes and refinement techniques available.

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Data availability statement

All associated data in this manuscript are made available in the main text.