Silicon Mining Companies: Who Mines, Smelts and Sells

Silicon is rarely “mined” in the way gold or copper is. The companies that investors and buyers call silicon miners dig quartz or quartzite (silica rock), smelt it in electric furnaces into silicon metal or ferrosilicon, and some refine it further into polysilicon for solar cells and chips. The USGS says silicon metal and its alloys are made from silica in forms such as quartzite, and that world resources are large enough to supply demand for many decades (USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, 2026). So the useful question is not “who has the biggest deposit” but “who runs the furnaces, where is the cheap power, and which step of the chain does each company sell”.

This page sorts the main names by their step in the chain, gives one verified scale figure for each, and shows the country, price and trade data behind the sector. It gives facts only. It is not investment advice.

Silicon mining companies compared by role in the chain

The table groups six companies by what they do. The scale column uses the latest figure from a company filing, a company page or a trade-press report of its results, with the date. Figures are not like-for-like: one is capacity, another is output, another is sales. Read each row on its own terms.

Infographic

From quartz to polysilicon in 4 steps

1. 1Mine quartzQuartz or quartzite is dug from open pits.
2. 2SmeltElectric furnaces turn silica into silicon metal or ferrosilicon.
3. 3RefineSilicon metal is purified into polysilicon.
4. 4SellAlloys, silicones, solar wafers and chips are the end uses.

Hoshine Silicon Industry

Best for: readers who want the clearest view of Chinese silicon metal volumes.

Hoshine reported 2025 revenue of CNY 20.499 billion and a net loss attributable to shareholders of CNY 2.991 billion. It blamed disruption in its photovoltaic (PV, solar) business and CNY 1.699 billion of asset impairments. Metallurgical silicon (MG-Si, the grade used in alloys and silicones) brought in CNY 9.077 billion, down 34.05% on 2024. At end-2025 it listed capacity of 1.22 million tons of MG-Si, 1.73 million tons of silicones and 50,000 tons of polysilicon (pv magazine, 17 April 2026).

Pros: large, integrated from silicon metal into silicones. Cons: a heavy loss year, exposure to Chinese solar prices, and reporting in yuan on a Shanghai listing.

Ferroglobe

Best for: readers who want a company that reports in US filings and mines its own quartz.

Ferroglobe files annual reports on Form 20-F with the US SEC. Its Form 20-F for 2024 (filed in 2025) says its facilities could make about 330,000 tons of silicon metal a year, plus capacity for silicon-based and manganese-based alloys, and that it was not running at full capacity. The same filing says quartz is mined at open pits and lists operations in the United States, Spain, France, Canada, South Africa and elsewhere (Ferroglobe Form 20-F exhibit, 2024).

Pros: plants in several countries, quartz supply under its own control. Cons: its own filing says it was not running at full capacity, and it names a power contract at its Alloy, West Virginia plant that was due to expire in 2025.

Elkem

Best for: readers who want a Norwegian-listed silicon producer.

Elkem is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under ELK and published its integrated annual report for 2025 on 19 March 2026 (Inderes release). Its own site gives one clear scale figure for the Yongdeng plant in China, which makes chemical-grade silicon metal at 50,000 tons a year using four large electric furnaces (Elkem, Yongdeng). Read the full annual report for plant-by-plant capacity in Norway.

Pros: a listed group that reports silicon products as a stated business line. Cons: the row shows one plant, not group capacity, so it is not a capacity ranking.

Wacker Chemie

Best for: readers focused on semiconductor-grade polysilicon.

Wacker’s polysilicon sales fell 7.0% to EUR 882.9 million in 2025, and segment EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) fell 50.3% to EUR 96.2 million. The company said solar-grade volumes fell, while hyperpure semiconductor-grade polysilicon “performed very well”. A new cleaning line in Burghausen started in May 2025 and lifted hyperpure capacity by more than 50% (Wacker Annual Report 2025).

Pros: strength in the higher-purity chip segment. Cons: high German energy costs and weak solar-grade prices hit earnings.

Daqo New Energy

Best for: readers who want a pure solar polysilicon producer reporting in US dollars.

Daqo produced 123,652 metric tons of polysilicon in 2025 and sold 126,707 tons. It guided to 140,000 to 170,000 tons for 2026 (TaiyangNews, 27 February 2026).

Pros: single-product focus, transparent volume guidance. Cons: fully tied to the solar cycle.

Sibelco

Best for: readers who want the quartz-mining end of the chain.

The USGS counted two companies producing high-purity quartz (HPQ) in the United States in 2025, both around Spruce Pine, North Carolina, from pegmatite rock that is also mined for feldspar and mica (USGS quartz summary, 2026). Sibelco is one of them. It announced a US$200 million project in April 2023 to double installed HPQ capacity, described then as planned for completion in 2025 (Sibelco’s page does not report completion), and a larger second stage, estimated at about US$500 million, for 2024 to 2027 (Sibelco).

Pros: access to some of the world’s scarcest quartz. Cons: private, so there are no public shares to follow.

How we chose these companies

We did not rank them. Capacity, output and sales are reported on different bases, and no neutral source lists every producer on one basis. We picked one company for each step of the chain (quartz, silicon metal, polysilicon) with recent published figures: a company filing, a company web page or a dated trade-press report of results. The USGS lists producers in many other countries, including Brazil, Norway and France. Their omission is not a judgement on them.

Which countries make silicon metal

China dominates. The USGS estimates world silicon metal production at 4,600 thousand tons in 2025, of which China made 4,000 thousand tons, about 87%. Brazil (180) and Norway (130) follow far behind. For ferrosilicon, the iron alloy used in steelmaking, China made 3,500 of 5,000 thousand tons (USGS, 2026).

Chart

World silicon metal production by country, 2025 estimate

Thousand metric tons; selected countries

Silicon metal and ferrosilicon prices

The USGS publishes annual average US prices in cents per pound of contained silicon. Silicon metal averaged 220.31 cents per pound in 2021, peaked at 361.86 in 2022 and fell to 130 in 2025 (estimate). Ferrosilicon with 75% silicon went from 192.28 in 2021 to 312.10 in 2022 and 140 in 2025 (estimate). One cent per pound equals about US$22.05 per tonne, so 130 cents per pound is roughly US$2,866 per tonne. These are USGS annual averages, not today’s quotes. Check a current price source before you use any figure in a model.

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US average prices, cents per pound of silicon

Silicon metal and 75% ferrosilicon, annual averages; 2025 is an estimate

United States trade in silicon metal and ferrosilicon

US production figures are withheld by the USGS to protect company data, so trade is the clearest window. Silicon metal imports rose from 97 thousand tons in 2021 to an estimated 180 thousand tons in 2025, while exports fell from 53 to 30. The USGS puts net import reliance for silicon metal above 50% in 2025. Ferrosilicon imports eased from 125 to 110 thousand tons (USGS, 2026). The USGS also notes five ferrosilicon and silicon metal facilities in the country, all east of the Mississippi River, and three polysilicon producers.

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US imports and exports, thousand tons

Silicon metal and ferrosilicon

What the solar squeeze did to polysilicon sales

Polysilicon is the downstream product most exposed to solar demand. Wacker’s polysilicon sales were EUR 1,529.8 million in 2021, EUR 2,287.2 million in 2022 and EUR 1,599.3 million in 2023, then EUR 949.2 million in 2024 and EUR 882.9 million in 2025 (Wacker Annual Report 2025). Wacker linked the sales drop to lower solar-grade volumes and low plant utilisation, and the earnings drop to low prices and higher German energy costs. The IEA reported in 2022 that China’s share of every manufacturing stage of solar PV, including polysilicon, exceeded 80% (IEA, Solar PV Global Supply Chains, 2022). The same pressure shows in Hoshine’s yuan loss and in Daqo’s 2025 net loss of US$170.5 million.

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Wacker polysilicon sales, EUR million

Segment sales, 2021 to 2025

Silver mining stocks are a different business

Silicon and silver share little. Silicon is a high-volume industrial input made in smelters. Silver is a metal mined at low tonnages and traded as an investment asset. The USGS estimates world silver mine production at 26,000 tons in 2025, led by Mexico (6,300 tons), Peru (3,600) and China (3,400). In the United States, silver came from 4 silver mines and 31 base- and precious-metal operations, which shows how much silver is a by-product of other metals. The USGS puts average US bullion at about US$38 per troy ounce for 2025 (estimate), and lists photovoltaics at 15% of estimated domestic uses (USGS silver summary, 2026). Silver miners are valued on reserves, grade and by-product credits, not on furnace capacity. Neither the silicon nor the silver data on this page is a recommendation about any share.

Silicon furnace revenue calculator

The calculator below converts a USGS-style price in cents per pound into a revenue figure for a furnace of your own size. Enter your own capacity, utilisation and price.

What to check before researching a silicon producer

• Which step of the chain? Quartz, silicon metal, ferrosilicon and polysilicon have different buyers and prices.
• Capacity or output? A plant that can make 330,000 tons may ship far less in a weak year. Ferroglobe’s own filing says it is not running at full capacity.
• Power contracts. Furnaces run on electric power, so the term and source of the contract matter. Ferroglobe’s filing names one such contract.
• Currency and reporting basis. Yuan, euro, krone and dollar results do not compare without conversion.
• Trade rules. Tariffs and anti-dumping cases change which markets a producer can reach. Check the regulator’s current notices.

If you hold a quartz or silica licence and want to know what the ground looks like before you drill, a satellite screen is one early step. For a wider read on critical minerals projects, see our guides to spodumene pegmatites in James Bay and tungsten and antimony in Canada.

▶ What satellite exploration can and cannot do when you assess a mining project. · 2:08

Finding quartz deposits from space

Satellite images can help map rock units, outcrops and access across a licence, but they cannot say how pure the quartz is. Only samples and lab work can. Farmonaut takes a KML, KMZ or polygon of your licence and returns a satellite screen of the area in 5 to 20 business days, as an early-stage step ahead of any resource estimate. You can request a quote or read about satellite-based mineral detection.

▶ A three-minute plain-language explanation of remote sensing for mining. · 2:01

Related reading on this site: Maine Tourmaline Mines: Where to Dig, What It Sells For.

We cover a connected topic in Uranium Royalty Companies: Who Holds Uranium Royalties.

Frequently asked questions

Are there silicon mining companies?

Not in the strict sense. Silicon is made from quartz or quartzite, which is mined, and then smelted. Companies such as Ferroglobe mine their own quartz and smelt it, while others buy quartz from third parties.

Which country produces the most silicon metal?

China. The USGS estimates 4,000 thousand tons of a world total of 4,600 thousand tons in 2025, with Brazil and Norway next.

What is the difference between silicon metal and ferrosilicon?

Silicon metal is nearly pure silicon, used in aluminium alloys, silicones and, after further refining, polysilicon. Ferrosilicon is an iron-silicon alloy, mostly used in steel and foundries, according to the USGS.

What is polysilicon?

Polysilicon is ultra-pure silicon made from silicon metal. It is the raw material for solar wafers and chips. Three companies made it in the United States in 2025, per the USGS.

What is high-purity quartz?

The USGS defines it as natural quartz with under 100 parts per million of impurities, or 99.99% purity. It is used for crucibles that hold molten silicon, fibre optics and lamp tubing.

How much does silicon metal cost?

The USGS gives an estimated 2025 average of 130 cents per pound in the United States, about US$2,866 per tonne. Prices moved from 361.86 cents per pound in 2022, so check a current quote.

Is the United States self-sufficient in silicon metal?

No. The USGS estimates imports of 180 thousand tons in 2025 against exports of 30 thousand, and net import reliance above 50%.

Why are polysilicon companies losing money?

Wacker and Hoshine cited low prices or weak demand, and Daqo cited industry excess capacity, in their 2025 reporting. Wacker’s hyperpure semiconductor-grade business performed very well.

Are silicon and silver stocks the same kind of investment?

No. Silicon producers earn money from smelting and refining volumes, while silver miners depend on ore grade, by-product credits and the silver price.

Where can I check a company’s figures?

Use its annual report, a Form 20-F or 10-K on the SEC’s EDGAR system, or the exchange filing page. Trade-press summaries are a starting point only. This page is not investment advice.