From Minerals to Magic

Wanting to be a history teacher growing up, Isaac Edwards would probably never have guessed that he’d end up in mining. "But I'm glad I made that decision," he says.

Born and raised in North Carolina, he had been around mines his whole life. Yet, he had little knowledge of what they actually did. “I had no real knowledge of the industry, but decided to give it a try,” he says.

When stepping into the plant on his very first day, he discovered a new world. “I remember seeing a million different pipes and lines, learning that this was what I was going to operate. I thought, man, I can’t do this.”

Luckily, a colleague with 44 years of experience took him under his wings, sharing knowledge going far beyond textbooks. “He could walk in and sniff his nose and say, “there’s something off here”. I dug into his knowledge, and after several months I got really good at it too,” Isaac explains.

From Minerals to Magic

At The Quartz Corp, Isaac finds himself at the forefront of a global industry revolution. The company has transformed one of the most common minerals on earth, quartz, into a highly sought-after, high-tech product called high purity puartz (HPQ).

"The thing that impresses me the most is our product. We take rocks and make it into this incredibly pure product that powers almost everything. It's like magic," Isaac says.

There is feldspar and quartz everywhere, he explains, but in the small town of Spruce Pine, the ore is particularly clean. And with increasing demands for fiber optics and solar power, to name a few end-products, quartz has become a very important mineral.

This development has had a great impact on Spruce Pine, Isaac explains. “Today, HPQ is really keeping the community flourishing. When people ask me how we do it, I say that we are baking a very complicated cake here. We follow a recipe and we’re really good at it. But it really is just magic,” he says.

From Operator to Specialist

Isaac's journey at The Quartz Corp began as a floatation operator. That’s also where the quartz begins its transformation to become one of the purest materials on earth, HPQ.

“We get the rock from the mines, crush it and mill it, and mix it with water into a slurry. Then we float off all metals before we finally have pure quartz. Then it gets purified even more”.

Years later, he became a quality specialist. And when working with high purity quartz, quality is critical. "Quality touches everything," he emphasizes.

From Local Industry to Global Impact

The world's purest quartz has led to groundbreaking applications, from everyday electronics to cutting-edge quantum computing.

Isaac takes pride in being part of this journey, knowing that the products have a piece of Spruce Pine in them.

"When I grew up, we used to say that all toilets had a piece of Spruce Pine feldspar in them. Nowadays, we say that all smart phones and computers have a piece of Spruce Pine in them”.

He believes this makes both the people working here as well as the local community proud. "When I drive by the production facility, I'm proud to say that this is where we mine the world’s highest purity quartz,” Isaac says.