To produce 4N grade high-purity silica powder from natural ore, the mineralogical characteristics of natural silica ore were investigated and their effects on the purification process were revealed. The Chinese silica mineral ore used was composed of iron and aluminum as main impurities and calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, and titanium as trace impurities; these trace impurities generally exist as either single oxides or complex oxides. It was confirmed that liberation and acidic washing of the impurities were highly dependent on the particle size of the ground silica ore and on its mineralogical characteristics such as the distribution and phases of existing impurities. It is suggested that appropriate size reduction of silica ore should be realized for optimized purification according to the origin of the natural silica ore. A single step purification process, the mechano-chemical washing (MCW) process, was proposed and verified in comparison with the conventional multi step washing process.