This comes via Dow Jones / Market Watch (gated).
In brief:
The mines in Spruce Pine, N.C., about an hour outside of Asheville, produce a unique kind of high-purity quartz used in semiconductor manufacturing. The town is the only place in the world where the uniquely high-quality mineral can be found in such large quantities and produced for such a low price.
The two companies that operate the mines in Spruce Pine said they’ve shut down local facilities as widespread flooding, power and communications outages plague Appalachia in the wake of the storm.Repairs at the facilities and in the town could lead to supply-chain bottlenecks and temporary price increases on chips and electronics, sources told MarketWatch, particularly since the material sourced in Spruce Pine is so difficult to find across the globe.
More at that link above if you can access it.
This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.
