Inside a Real Gold Mine: Following the Quartz Vein Underground This is what it was like to chase gold underground in the 1800s - and there were NO guarantees. 🪨⛏️ Inside this walk-in mine (called an Adit), you can follow the foreign intruded quartz vein as it penetrates deep into the hill. Miners used a "whins" - short for windlass, a hand-operated winch - to haul ore up vertical shafts from within the mine. But here's the brutal reality: ▸ The vein might jump or pinch out completely ▸ A second