What shines like gold, but is worth only a mere fraction of the real thing? What got its name by tricking miners into thinking it was gold? What appears as geometric cubes of pure gold but gives off sulfuric acid during mining operations when it comes into contact with oxygen and water? The answer to all of these questions is iron pyrite, or fool’s gold.
Fool’s Gold Tricks Miners
During the gold rush, it was not uncommon for a forty-niner to encounter large chunks of fool’s gold and think they had hit the mother lode. It did not take long, though, for these men to find out that they, like so many before them, had mistaken iron pyrite for actual gold. In fact, this happened so often to miners that iron pyrite forever became known as fool’s gold.
Where Is It Found?
Fool’s gold is a sulfide mineral that is quite often found in or around fossils and in coal beds. It is also found in quartz veins and other sedimentary rock, which is often why it is mistaken or sometimes found alongside gold. With this in mind, then, perhaps fool’s gold isn’t so bad, particularly if it can be used as a kind of guiding light for the real valuable gold.
What Good Is Fool’s Gold?
While fool’s gold is certainly not going to be loved by any gold miner, it is not without merits. Iron pyrite is shiny, durable and very pretty, so it is often found adorning costume jewelry. Additionally, large specimens often look as though hundreds of tiny gold cubes have been somehow joined together, and are often prized by specimen collectors.
Industry
If you make your money in paper, then you probably love iron pyrite. You may even say that for some fool’s gold is a real golden opportunity, because it has been a key element in the creation of sulfur dioxide for the paper industry in the past. While the importance of this element for paper has changed over the years, there are major companies today that simply would not be where they are today without a touch of fool’s gold.
It may never be worth a lot of money, and it may continue to be the bane of a miner’s existence. However, for the specimen collector, costume jewelry lover and the paper manufacturer, fool’s gold is actually a pretty wonderful little piece of pyrite.
