[Silica to solar glass // 5 stages]
From Nigerian quartz to Nigerian solar panels.
Why it matters
Sand is the start of the solar supply chain.
Most of a solar panel’s weight is glass. Solar glass needs silica with very little iron, because iron tints glass green and blocks sunlight. Nigeria has the quartz; the pathway below turns it into a product.
One chain, inside the group
Mine Acquico supplies the silica, and Tranos builds the panels. The value of every step stays with Nigerian businesses.
Fewer imports
Solar glass and finished panels are imported today. Making them at home saves foreign exchange as Nigeria’s solar demand grows.
Beyond solar
The same low-iron silica serves container glass, flat glass for buildings, foundries and chemicals, so the mine is not tied to one buyer.
01
Mine Acquico
Quartz exploration & extraction
- Mapping and drilling high-purity quartz and silica sand deposits
- Assays for silica content and for iron, the impurity that matters most in solar glass
- Resource reporting to international standards
02
Mine Acquico
Purification to low-iron silica
- Washing, scrubbing and sizing to remove clay and fines
- Magnetic separation and acid leaching to strip out iron
- Low-iron silica sand made to glassmakers’ specifications
03
Planned glass plant
Solar glass manufacturing
- Melting low-iron silica with soda ash and limestone
- Rolling patterned glass that lets the most light through
- Tempering and anti-reflective coating for outdoor life
04
Tranos
Panel assembly at Tranos
- Glass supplied to Tranos’s 800 MW solar panel factory in Mowe, Ogun State
- Cells joined with tin-coated ribbon, a second use for Nigerian tin
- Panels built in Nigeria, from Nigerian materials
05
Nigeria’s solar market
Supply to Nigeria’s solar build-out
- Panels for homes, businesses, mini-grids and utility-scale plants
- Fewer imports and less foreign exchange spent on them
- Skilled jobs from the quarry to the factory floor
Silica is one of four strategic minerals in the Mine Acquico portfolio. Tin, the other mineral in every solar panel, is on the same path.