Basalt Fiber?

[saucer]

Anyone know much about this stuff? I was chatting with my dealer today about the rumored shortage of carbon fiber due to the military demand and he had heard about this weave made from basalt rock that's supposed to be stronger than steel and cheaper than carbon fiber!

Wikipedia doesn't have much on it and I haven't been able to find any auto mod applications... why isn't this stuff more common??

 

[pbfoot]

Hmm basalt is composed largely of hardened silicates and trace metals so I guess the material isn't completely wrong but I'm not sure how you could ever go about breaking it down into fiber strands.