When Cyclone Ita crossed the coast on Friday night at Cape Flattery it was a category four storm with winds reaching 275 km/h.

And right in its path? The Cape Flattery Silica Mine which provides two million tonnes of silica sand - with an export value of "tens of millions of dollars" to Japan, Taiwan, The Phillipines and Korea each year.

The company is regarded as one of Queensland mining's "quiet achievers."

The company's chief financial officer Samat Narula flew by helicopter from Cairns to Cape Flattery on Monday to inspect the cyclone damage.

"Most of the major damage is around the power lines. We don't have any power and the power lines and most of the power poles are down," Mr Narula said.

The Cape Flattery Silica Mine started in 1967, was bought by Mitsubishi in 1977 and in 1987 added a 500-metre deepwater wharf which runs out to water which is about 16 metres deep.

The wharf area is probably the hardest hit. We were expecting the worst, but hoping for the best," Mr Narula said.

"It is certainly a lot better than expected, which is a relief.

"But we have not been able to assess certain areas because we couldn't get to them.

"We couldn't actually walk along the wharf because some of the grating and meshing was missing."

"Basically the walkways along the wharf had basically lifted off and blown away."

Mr Narula said the company's ship loader and stacker are all still onsite.

"They don't look as if they've have been flattened," he said.

Roofs, guttering, windows have all been extensively damaged in the Cape Flattery mine's township where they employ 85 people.

"But that's mostly cosmetic damage," he said.

Mr Narula estimated repairs would mean they would be out of production for about a month.

"We are covered by insurance, so the assessor will be going up to the site in about a month or so giving us the nod to go ahead and get it up and running again."

The mine's website describes it as "largest global exporter of silica sand and has the largest production of silica sand in the world."

It employs around 85 people, and has a Cairns office as well as the 5.6 hectare mine site at the remote point on Cape Flattery.

Mr Narula said the damage costs would be in the "hundreds of thousands of dollars", even on their earliest estimates.

"I can't really give you a figure, but it will be up from that (low hundreds of thousands of dollars)."

"A bit more than that actually."

Mr Narula said his company was one of "Queensland achievers."

"We are sort of the quiet achievers and we are biggest silica mine in the world.

"And 90 per cent of the world's flat screen TVs have Cape Flattery silica sand in them.

"The glass is made from Cape Flattery sand.

"That is another interesting statistic, no-one realises."

Cape Flattery Silica Mine also provides the silica which is used in many of the world's iPhone and Android phone screens.

"We do, but our major customers are in Taiwan, Korea and Japan and they're the major manufacturers to flat screen TVs."

Mr Narula said he was relieved when he saw the mine site and township.

"We were expecting a lot worse. But again, there is still a lot of work to get it up and running again."

He said the loss of production would not severely impact world trade in silica.

"We may be the biggest mine in the world, but we are one of many," he said.

"In the worst case scenario, if we are unable to supply sand to our customers they would be able to get it from somewhere else.

"It would obviously be a problem for Cape Flattery, but not on a world-wide basis."