Effect of Hurricane Helene on the Solar Industry?

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9. Update - little damage to mine but power is out

Local paper reporting

The world’s main producer of high-purity quartz, a mineral crucial to the global supply of semiconductor chips, announced its shuttered Spruce Pine, North Carolina, mines have endured “minor damage,” according to an initial assessment conducted after Tropical Storm Helene upended the town. “Our dedicated teams are on-site, conducting cleanup and repair activities to restart operations as soon as we can,” the mine owner, Sibelco, wrote in an update Friday. The private Belgian company added the power remains out at its Western North Carolina mines but that repairs have “progressed significantly.”

With around 500 employees, Sibelco is the largest employer in Mitchell County, a rural mountainous area northeast of Asheville. The company said all its employees and contractors had been accounted for following last week’s storm, which dumped more than two feet of rain on Spruce Pine and flooded the local North Toe River. Its facilities have been closed since Sept. 26. Sibelco’s mines sit north of downtown in an area called the Spruce Pine Mining District. Like much of the region, Mitchell County has sustained extensive road and rail line damage, which could hinder employees’ ability to get to the mines and Sibelco’s ability to move its valuable quartz.

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article293471279.html