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GEONotes Pyrite (Fool’s ): An Often Misunderstood - Pyrite is often mistaken for gold because it is brassy yellow, Pyrite, the most common , is found in many although most gold is bright orange-yellow. But similarity kinds of rock in Indiana. Pyrite is not mined in Indiana but in color is about all pyrite and gold have in common. Pyrite is a source of for , fertilizers, and other is hard enough to scratch some metals but is brittle and products. Today, most sulfur comes from deposits on the breaks up easily when struck with a hammer. Gold is soft Gulf Coast or is recovered from the refining of sulfurous and malleable and can be pressed into very thin sheets. crude oils. Pyrite occurs in geometric forms, such as cubes or When containing pyrite is burned, is octahedra, but can be massive or granular. Gold also forms formed. Sulfur dioxide mixes with water molecules in the in geometric , but it often occurs as roundish globs, air, producing acid rain. Sulfur dioxide can be removed by a wiry masses, or, in Indiana, as flakes. Gold is also much process called “scrubbing.” One scrubbing process uses finely denser than pyrite. ground in a water slurry that reacts with sulfur compounds in exhaust gases, removing the sulfur and elimi- nating it from the exhaust.

Gold nugget Pyrite

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