The reply to a question about nucleosynthesis, that heavier than iron elements are produced in supernovae explosions, raised for me the following question which I could not answer by googling. Partially because the search for planets and stars brings out astrology answers!
Explosions are dispersive, nevertheless we find minerals in clumps, not only uniformly dispersed in the ground. Is there a coherent presentation that explains how minerals end up in veins and bands?
Best Answer
Mostly because they are heavy.
Rocks erode putting their constituents into solution, the heavy stuff settles out in river/sea beds, and metals are heavy.
For many metals hydrothermal process are more important. Super hot water deep in the earth dissolves the rock containing the minerals, it moves along cracks in the rock and cools depositing the salt and metals as lines in the rock.
In an asteroid with no geological process the metals are found in their raw state having cooled directly from the original ball of primeval gas