The quality of quartz-rich minerals used to charge the metallurgical silicon furnaces barely matters for semiconductors. The purity required for the final silic

The quality of quartz-rich minerals used to charge the metallurgical silicon furnaces barely matters for semiconductors. The purity required for the final silicon is much higher than any mineral resource found in nature. See this presentation "Manufacturing of Silicon Materials for Microelectronics and Solar PV" for an overview of how industry turns quartzite and coal (dirty) into ultra-pure silicon: https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1497235 https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1497235 If I were to guess, I would say that India's largest obstacle to domestic silicon production and refining is the price of electricity. The processes need a lot of electricity so they tend to be located in areas where it is available at low cost.