The people interviewed in the article claim that "if we shut the gates... they wouldn't be able to make computers anymore". But elsewhere in the article it make

The people interviewed in the article claim that "if we shut the gates... they wouldn't be able to make computers anymore". But elsewhere in the article it makes clear that making pure quartz artificially is simply much more expensive than pulling it out of the ground. So it's not really a secret ingredient, it's just the cheapest available source.