Which materials are they and how would you suggest doing it with fewer materials?

ultra pure water production itself is responsible for untold amounts of hydroflouric acid and ammonia , and most etching processes have an F-Gas involved, and most plants that do this work have tremendously high energy (power) costs due to stability needs/hvac.

it's not 'just sand'.

In theory, graphene based semiconductors would eliminate a lot of need for shipping and mining.