Great South Gems & Minerals

• Pyrite Crystal Cube in Matrix•
(Spain) 

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• Pyrite Crystal Cube in Matrix•
(Spain) 

pyrite cubes - Pyrite Crystals - Pyrite - fools gold - iron sulfide

Looks like someone has taken the pyrite cubes and polished them. Each crystal has a mirror-like finish. The Pyrite Crystals are in a matrix of Marl - 50% Clay and 15% Calcium.

Pyrite, or Iron Pyrite, is an iron sulfide, and has been commonly referred to as "FOOLS GOLD" due to its resemblance to gold. It has a bright brass-yellowish color.

I recall as a boy, watching some of the old western movies on TV, the prospector in the movie, panning for gold in a stream, would take a speck of material from his gold pan, put it in his mouth and bite down on it. If the material crumbled up in his mouth, he knew it was "FOOLS GOLD", or iron pyrite. If the piece of material just flattened out as a result of his bite, he knew it was the real thing! Gold!

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Pyrite occurs as isometric crystals that usually appear as cubes. Hardness: 6 to 6.5. Pyrite is used commercially for the production of sulfur dioxide, for use in such applications as the paper industry, and in the manufacture of sulfuric acid.

Pyrite is usually found associated with other sulfides or oxides in quartz veins, sedimentary rock, and metamorphic rock, as well as in coal beds, and as a replacement mineral in some fossils. See "Pyrite Sun" crystals formed in coal and Pyrite Suns in black shale matrix.
For further study on Iron Pyrite go to: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrite

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