@tattoomagoo,
prhaps if you took a closer shot at the metallic rods. and put a coin in the picture for some scale.
Its a quartzite mass so the metallic stuff could be n iron mineral that has that habit of long rodas. No pyritic rocks (arseno, cupro, ) take that extreme rod form.
Is it magnetic?
if you take a crystal chunk and hold it in a flame does it have any particular odor?
Theres quite a few of the Nickel iron sulfides (Loellinghite, millwerite) that form long shards like those.
A real find would be if its stibnite (which often forms in qurtz veins as you have there).
Stibnite is the primary ore of antimony so don't go licking it.