For the study of Middle Paleolithic subsistence economies, Gruta da Figueira Brava (Setúbal, Portugal), is a key site: the earliest evidence for the substantial exploitation of marine resources in Europe. However, the lithic assemblage recovered during the most recent excavations, more than 80% composed of quartz, remained understudied until recently. Worldwide, vein quartz was commonly used for the production of stone artifacts. However, quartz has been often considered a raw material exploited expediently and with limited technical investment. This is mostly motivated by the fact that, due to a high incidence of fracturing, quartz lithic assemblages are typologically and morphologically less standardized than flint ones. For these reasons, very few studies concern quartz industries, especially when flint and quartzite are asociated, which are easier to analyze. Following the most recent technological and experimental approaches, we carried out a techno-typological analyses of a sample of quartz cores and quartz blanks from three successive human occupation phases spanning the c.86-106 ka ago interval. The results show that specific knapping techniques were successfully applied, implying a good management of the particular mechanical and functional properties of the raw material and the adoption of exploitation strategies intent on mitigating its high tendency to fracture. These results demonstrate that quartz is a rock of remarkable capacity and versatility, helping to explain its widespread use in the Palaeolithic, at least when available in the local environment.