[Rockhounds] attacking quartz without hydrofluoric acid

[Lanny]

Yes Don, there are quartz mines. Silicon is made from quartz, generally 
mined from quartzite or quartz sand.

My problem was I lost sight of the big picture and Kreigh's point that 
quartz has to be dissolved and processed. His message hit me as the 
often written and wrong comment about the quartz in our computers when 
its the silicon in the computer chips the writer is talking about (yes 
there are quartz timing chips). From my perspective the semiconductor 
industry works with silicon to make chips; another industry, the 
processors/refiners/smelters work with quartz to make the silicon 
metal.

Like so many others who have commented though, if removing quartz is 
the problem, at my house it isn't going to be by any method typically 
used by industry and laboratories to accomplish it. No hot sodium 
hydroxide or pressurized containers please; which is a big problem. 
Basically, a druse of quartz crystals and that thin silica scum coating 
can't be easily removed from the coated minerals.

Regards,

Lanny


On Dec 26, 2007, at 11:02 AM, DonH wrote:

> Lanny wrote:
>
>> Doesn't the semiconductor industry work with silicon, the metal, not 
>> silica, the oxide? There must be a whole world of difference in 
>> dissolving silicon as compared to dissolving silica (quartz).
>
>
> But where do they get the silicon?  I think there are quartz mines 
> with relatively pure quartz used for semiconductors.  I can't think of 
> too many ways besides acids to get the silicon isolated (then again 
> I'm not a chemist).
>
> Best,
> Don
>
>
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