The Nicholson deposit is located about 12 kilometres south-southeast of Golden, about 3 kilometres east of the Columbia River and south of Horse Creek.

Quarrying operations take place on quartzite of the Middle and/or Upper Ordovician Mount Wilson Formation. Quartzites in the area are exposed in faulted segments and are massive, hard, firmly cemented, pale grey or bluish to white, or light buff coloured. The quartz grains are 0.12 to 0.85 millimetre in diameter with most in the 0.25 to 0.50 millimetre range. A northeast trending transverse fault has the effect of repeating the uppermost bed of high quality silica. Thinly bedded, fine-grained dolomite of the Middle Ordovician-Silurian Beaverfoot Formation outcrops locally and strikes between 220 to 280 degrees and dips 32 to 35 degrees northwest.

Shipments began in 1980 and production has been approximately 30,000 tonnes per year (Open File 1987-15). The silica is used for silicon and ferrosilicon production. In 1984, some the finer grained waste was reportedly used in cement manufacturing.

Open-pittable reserves were estimated in 1985 to be 3 million tonnes grading 99.5 per cent (Z.D. Hora, personal communication 1991; Open File 1987-15). Two samples taken in 1985 from the stockpile of processed material analysed 99.85 and 99.90 weight per cent silica (Open File 1987-15).

Bert Miller Trucking and Contracting Ltd. is producing approximately 60,000 tonnes annually and has started to process the undersize product, accumulating at a rate of 10,000 tonnes annually, into a variety of fine to coarse aggregate products (Information Circular 1996-1, page 9).

Nugget Contracting Ltd. was producing 70,000 tonnes annually, of which 50,000 tonnes is shipped to Wenatchee, Washington (Information Circular 1997-1, page 12).