China has discovered a new source of high-purity quartz in its western Tibet autonomous region, potentially reducing its reliance on imports of the critical material to make solar panels and semiconductors.

High-purity quartz is a gold standard manufacturing material for numerous hi-tech items, including some whose global market is dominated by China.

China has relied on imports to obtain the important material, with most coming from the United States, because of a lack of domestic sources for the rare quartz. But recent geological discoveries could help China rewrite that dependence.

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“This study evaluates Tibet leucogranites as a potential raw material for high-purity quartz,” according to a paper published in the European Journal of Mineralogy in April.

“Our results demonstrate that these leucogranites hold considerable potential to produce high-purity quartz with [silica] contents above 99.995 per cent,” the team from the University of Science and Technology of China and the China Geological Survey wrote.

The study showed that the high-purity quartz supply exceeded the threshold required for use in hi-tech manufacturing.

The finding “offers a significant opportunity to develop high-end quartz resources in China, ensuring a stable and strategic supply of high-purity quartz raw materials”, the authors said.