Old Quartz Quarry Options

[jimmyrig]

Came across this hiking this summer in the Tarryall mountains. Looked like someone blasted the side of a mountain out. Evidence of early 1900s equipment. I'm guessing they were looking for gold. I saw zero evidence of anything but white quartz (enough to build a set of furniture or even a small house out of). Anyone think there could be some topaz or something else hiding in with all that? Is it worth chipping away some?

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[Clay Diggins]

Why do you think it was quarried? I don't see any signs of rockwork in your picture.

It looks like the typical quartz blowout. When these blowouts occur in granite the natural swelling of the granite tends to break up the quartz it surrounds and cause the collapse.

The quartz could have been carried off by humans for building stone or silica sand but more likely the quartz is buried under the resulting eluvial mass from the collapse of the intrusion.