From Geoscience Australia
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Quartz - The unsuspected critical mineral

Created 24/10/2025

Updated 24/10/2025

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High Purity Silica (HPS) is the principal raw material used for the production of silicon, which is, in turn, used to create products including semiconductors, solar cells and other technologies being developed to support the transition to a net zero economy. The mineral quartz is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth’s crust, but the high purity form of quartz has preferred SiO2 content of over 99.995%, which makes it extremely uncommon. With growing demand for green technologies, there is a parallel increase in demand for the discovery of new high purity quartz deposits to supply the raw material. Geoscience Australia is addressing this demand by generating the first mineral systems model and accompanying national scale mineral potential map to help explorers accelerate discovery. Further, we are undertaking the first national scale sampling and analytical campaign to examine the impact of mineral systems on quartz purity and develop the Explorers’ Toolbox—an industry applicable, best practice guideline for the characterisation of potential HPS deposits. 

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Quartz - The unsuspected critical mineral
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/en/dataset/b22042fa-942c-4844-9a52-f651d8d764c3
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        112.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        154.0,
        -44.0
      ],
      [
        154.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -9.0
      ],
      [
        112.0,
        -44.0
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Quartz - The unsuspected critical mineral". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/quartz-the-unsuspected-critical-mineral