The Vogel specialty sand deposit contains on the order of 16 million tons of potentially economic dune sand. The immediate source is the fluvial deposits of the Mojave River adjacent to the site on the west. These fluvial sands are derived primarily from the Mesozoic granitic bedrock units of the San Bernardino Mountains near Silver Lake and the Jurassic to Triassic metavolcanic bedrock units of the Silver and Sidewinder Mountain areas.

The sands contain principally feldspar (oligoclase, 40%; K-spar, 17%), and quartz (35%), with minor amounts of hydrobiotite (5%) and hornblende, tourmaline, etc (2%). The sand is very well sorted with most grains about 0.3 mm in diameter and angular to subangular.

The deposit has many similarities to the once extensive specialty sand deposits mined along the California coast prior to the restrictive coastal zone ordinances of the 1960s and 1970s.

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