Apple hopes to open its Arizona sapphire plant by next month

While it was previously known that Apple was working on a new sapphire crystal manufacturing partnership in Mesa, Arizona in partnership with GT Advanced Technologies, thus far few details have emerged on what exactly Apple plans to do with the sapphire glass to be created by the plant. According to recently-published correspondence between Apple and Arizona regulators, the iPhone maker hopes to open the facility as early as next month.

In November of last year, Apple announced that it would be opening up a new manufacturing plant in Mesa, Arizona. Since that time, little information has come out about the plant except that it would be utilized to manufacture sapphire crystal for future Apple devices. The plant will be operated by Apple in tandem with GT Advanced Technologies. Earlier this year, we learned via (now removed) Apple job listings that the plant would involve components for future iPhone and iPod product lines. Now, we have tracked down documents (with the help of analyst Matt Margolis) showing correspondence between U.S. Foreign Trade Zone officials and Apple’s Deputy Director of Global Trade Compliance.