Trace Element Concentrations and Mineralogy of Quartz Vein Deposits from Southeastern Hubei Province, China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The growing use of semiconductor integrated circuits, optical fibers to increase network capacity and the increasing penetration of the Internet, photovoltaics as the main source of electrical energy are increasing the demand for high purity quartz worldwide. As classic quartz purification technologies are considered energy-consuming and non-ecological, the market is hungry for new solutions. The HPQ market is perceived as an attractive investment for companies to replace the existing production standards. Over the past five years, many new patents have been filed for new, efficient technologies to produce high-purity silicon.

The Authors used a combination of analytical techniques in the study to assess the suitability of the Fujiashan and Yipanqiu quartz deposits located in central China. They are of economic importance. Prepared samples of natural quartz were pre-treated. Then, the prepared raw and processed quartz powders were subjected to extensive chemical analysis. The results of microscopic observations and the analysis of trace elements in the presented deposits showed a different level of metamorphism. The reason for this phenomenon is probably the different formation ages of these deposits. The Yipanqiu field is much younger than the Fujiashan field. This indicates that this is the cause of the high content of trace elements. Thus, this deposit cannot be considered an HPQ deposit.

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

Wang et al. present a convincing dataset of petrography,  trace elements of raw and processed quartz in 4 samples collected from the Fujiashan and Yipanqiu quartz deposits, southeastern Hubei Province to evaluate suitability for resources of high purity quartz (HPQ) that is highly demanded by high-tech industry. This study is well written, and points out why the Fujiashan deposit would provide materials for producing HPQ and the Yipanqiu could not. Thus, it is a good contribution to Minerals although numerous minors need fixed as marked in annotated PDF manuscript.

Attention needs paid specifically as following.

Figure 1: Younger strata should be placed on the top of Legend, and then older ones. A scale bar is needed for the geology map. References are required for Figure 1. Legend of Figure 2 has the same problem as Figure 1, requiring a repair.

Table 1: Sample number should be indicated. It is better to show what are the raw and processed quartz in the table, rather than a note in the table caption.   

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf