Physicochemical Properties and Purification of Quartz Minerals

Dear Colleagues,

High-purity quartz is closely related to the new generation of information technology, new material industry, new energy, and other fields in strategic emerging industries, and it is an important supporting material in strategic emerging industries. At the same time, high-purity quartz raw material is a strategic nonmetallic mineral resource which is scarce in the world, and there is a shortage in China. With the rapid development of semiconductor, optical communication, photovoltaic, and other industries, the demand for high-purity quartz is growing rapidly, and the price of high-purity quartz sand is also rising. Previous studies mainly focused on the methods used for the purification of high-purity quartz sand, whereas there is less research into the mineral exploration of high-purity quartz raw. In the study of high-purity quartz sand purification technology, raw material evaluation and selection technology are the basis and premise of high-purity quartz purification technology, and this is a technical bottleneck that must be broken through in the development of high-purity quartz technology in our country. It is of great economic significance to search for high-purity quartz raw material deposits with good ore quality, stable quality, and large ore body size.

At present, the silica raw material resources of 4N8 (99.998%) grade and above are almost all from the United States, Norway, India, and a few other countries; quartz resources are rarely found in other regions of the World. It is of great significance to carry out research on mineral exploration technology and methods of obtaining high-purity quartz raw materials to realize the breakthrough of mineral exploration and submission of resource reserves for ensuring the security of strategic resources for the development of high-purity quartz. In the development of high-purity quartz resources, the priority is to develop ore resources, often including granitic pegmatite (such as the granitic pegmatite in the Spruce Pine mountain of the US) and quartz vein (e.g., the metamorphic quartz vein in Norway). Aiming to obtain different types of quartz resources in nature, we aim for this Special Issue to collate experimental studies on the mineralogy, petrology, and geochemistry of high-purity quartz, quartz minerals, and host rocks. Based on detailed studies of the different occurrences of quartz and geological bodies, the purified properties of quartz in different occurrences of geological bodies will be evaluated through purification experiments of quartz. We hope that this Special Issue lays a theoretical and experimental foundation for finding and developing high-purity quartz.

Prof. Dr. Xiaoyong Yang
Dr. Mei Xia
Dr. Jianguo Li
Guest Editors

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• high-purity quartz
• silica resources
• theoretical and experimental studies
• mineralogy, petrology, and geochemistry
• different occurrences of geological bodies
• granitic pegmatite