Happy New Year Flagmantle , I think your assumption here may be wrong and need to do some research ,Group 14, Sila, amprius, enovix etc, use expensive very highly refined silicon, the higher the refinement the more expensive it gets for their tech to work , some also add ultra expensive nanotubes / nanowires that need to be grown adding further to the expense , Anteotech use unrefined silicon that as per Anteo's Battery tech presentations costs $8 per kg or less from a number of suppliers , 10 times cheaper than refined and very easily obtained all over the world .
Natural abundance
Silicon makes up 27.7% of the Earth's crust by mass and is the second most abundant element (oxygen is the first). It does not occur uncombined in nature but occurs chiefly as the oxide (silica) and as silicates. The oxide includes sand, quartz, rock crystal, amethyst, agate, flint and opal
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