Rock Identification - Pyrite?

Fairlane

Newbie
Feb 13, 2017
2
3
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I found this years ago as a oval stone and cracked it open, was wondering if this is pyrite?.
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Yes you do have pyrite and some chalcopyrite. Pyrite are those pale yellow (silvery) flecks and chalcopyrite those brass yellow flecks. Some of the minerals are covered in a thin coat of iron and that is what sometimes gives that golden yellow color. You were probably wondering if there is some gold in it. Yes there could be gold in that peace of rock.
The simplest way to know is to take a needle and press the individual gold like minerals. If the needle leaves a dent you might well have gold there if not then probably no. There is nothing to scale the pictures but i imagine you might need a magnifier. If you can acquire a jewelers loupe do so, if not consider buying one. It is not an expensive peace of equipment and it can be very useful.

If it proves that there is no gold in it i would still encourage you to explore the area where you found the rock, it is an interesting peace in itself. Try looking uphill or upriver from where you found it.

Good luck.
 

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I second Moesia. Good colors.
 

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Yes you do have pyrite and some chalcopyrite. Pyrite are those pale yellow (silvery) flecks and chalcopyrite those brass yellow flecks. Some of the minerals are covered in a thin coat of iron and that is what sometimes gives that golden yellow color. You were probably wondering if there is some gold in it. Yes there could be gold in that peace of rock.
The simplest way to know is to take a needle and press the individual gold like minerals. If the needle leaves a dent you might well have gold there if not then probably no. There is nothing to scale the pictures but i imagine you might need a magnifier. If you can acquire a jewelers loupe do so, if not consider buying one. It is not an expensive peace of equipment and it can be very useful.

If it proves that there is no gold in it i would still encourage you to explore the area where you found the rock, it is an interesting peace in itself. Try looking uphill or upriver from where you found it.

Good luck.

Thankyou I'll check it out, I found it years (+20 lol) ago digging up a garden but it was in a populated area no rivers, used to be a stream down the very back but has since been covered over and houses built on it in New Zealand. Size of it was about 5cm so not very big at all. I just kept it because I had never seen a rock like that before, was always curious what it was.
 

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