After having filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this week, Apple's sapphire supplier GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) has now sought the permission of the court to "wind down" operations at its sapphire manufacturing facility in Arizona.

GTAT is seeking the court's permission to shut down its manufacturing plant less than one year after the company announced a high-profile deal which it has worked out with Apple for supplying sapphire to the tech giant.

The details with regard to GTAT's request to the court were not made immediately available. The request had been made by the company under the seal of privacy, in order to protect the confidential information of a contract with a third party, which was later identified in court as Apple.

The court said in a Thursday ruling that Apple will have at least three days for reviewing and potentially moving to block any information in connection with its relationship with GTAT resulting from the latter's bankruptcy hearings.

In the Thursday, U. S. Judge Henry Boroff also said that all reasonable information should be provided by GTAT as part of the case, "except that in the event that any such information relates to the details of the debtors business relationship with Apple."