Most of the pits with gold also contained quartz vein material. Several northeast trending and southeast shallow dipping quartz veins of up to 0.50 metres in width were uncovered from the test pits.

Compaction: the grains are pressed close together as more and more sediment is buried on top. Cementation: the grains are "glued" together by minerals that precipitate out of the ground water that ...

If quartz grains entered the ocean as geological detritus carried from land by rivers or wind, the mineral should be more abundant near prehistoric coastlines. It isn’t, Schieber says.