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Rock Identification help

Chris007 · 2010-03-16 17:04:54

Hey guys, Came across this little rock in my house and was wondering if anyone could identify it? Is it worth anything?

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16-03-2010 6:04pm

#1

Chris007

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Hey guys,
Came across this little rock in my house and was wondering if anyone could identify it? Is it worth anything?

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#2 16-03-2010 6:06pm
smellslikeshoes

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Those pictures are terrible.

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#3 16-03-2010 6:09pm
Chris007

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Yeah sorry about the poor quality, its a small piece of rock with a kind of gold colour and small crytal-like pieces in it (you can tell i'm no expert)

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#4 17-03-2010 3:26am
Capt'n Midnight

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yeah those pictures are too out of focus to be usable, and the colour may be off as that isn't a flash or daylight

by the description I'd say it's fool's gold, Iron Pyrites

it's fairly worthless unless you have lots of the stuff , and I don't mean a few tonnes. It's something you don't want in the foundations of your house

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#5 18-03-2010 11:51pm
Capt'n Midnight

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speak of the Devil

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=2055857973
http://www.meathchronicle.ie/news/roundup/articles/2010/03/18/3995651-dail-committee-to-quiz-nra-on-whether-pyrite-was-used-to-build-m3/

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#6 20-03-2010 1:04pm
Marvinthefish

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#7 09-04-2010 5:43pm
Ruana

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Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

by the description I'd say it's fool's gold, Iron Pyrites

I'd go with the Iron Pyrite as well, that's what it looks like to me.

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#8 28-05-2010 11:20am
NotCarrotRidge

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Shocking pictures! From the colour of the first picture I would guess pyrite alright, although there's a slight possibility of it being chalcopyrite. Either way, it's of no economic value. Pyrite has been used (in very rare cases) as an iron ore, but you'd need upwards of 50 million tonnes of the stuff. A decent sample of any mineral is always nice to have, so just because it has no monetary value I wouldn't class it as worthless.

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#9 28-05-2010 11:26am
El Siglo

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Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

speak of the Devil

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=2055857973
http://www.meathchronicle.ie/news/roundup/articles/2010/03/18/3995651-dail-committee-to-quiz-nra-on-whether-pyrite-was-used-to-build-m3/

One of my lecturers was involved with identifying that problem, you might fool the county council but you can't fool x-ray fluorescence!:D OP, pictures are awful but it looks like iron pyrite ("fool's gold").

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