Silicon instead of lignite – raw material basis of a new industry

In its article of February 20, 2026, entitled "Silicon instead of lignite", the Ostdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung describes the expansion of the semiconductor industry in Saxony as a symbol of structural change.

The article shows that the industrial focus is increasingly shifting from fossil fuels to the production of microchips and semiconductors (see Ostdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 20.02.2026).

Silicon as a key material

Semiconductor production is based on high-purity silicon. This is extracted from quartz – the central mineral raw material for the entire value chain.

In the context of the investments in the chip industry described in the article, the strategic importance of the following also indirectly increases:

• High-purity quartz

• Metallurgical silicon

• Polysilicon

• Wafer production

(cf. Ostdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 20.02.2026)

Resource security as a future issue

As the newspaper reports, the expansion of semiconductor capacities is part of a European strategy for technological independence (see Ostdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 20.02.2026).

This also brings the secure supply of suitable mineral raw materials more into focus.

The shift from lignite to silicon is not only an economic signal, but also an expression of a long-term industrial transformation.

source

Ostdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. (February 20, 2026). Silicon instead of lignite .