This auction is for the white quartz stone in the photo.

Sourced in Central Otago, from a gold bearing river, near an historic quartz battery.

Quartz is a major constituent of the earth’s crust as well as one of the most important rock-forming minerals. The chemical composition of quartz is silicon dioxide (SiO2) – also known as silica.

A distinctive feature of quartz is its hardness, which means that it polishes well and is not easily broken. The appearance of quartz is variable – it may be coloured or colourless; transparent, cloudy or opaque.


Quartz commonly forms veins in the greywacke boulders in rivers and beaches. Thicker quartz veins also occur in schist, which makes up the western edge of the Southern Alps and parts of Otago. When the rock breaks down, these veins become the source of the distinctive and widespread pebbles of white quartz that are found in Southland and most West Coast rivers south of Hokitika and on the nearby beaches.


(Information was sourced from the internet).


65