Colorado Gold or just Pyrite?

[English Bloke]

... These of course are pyrite, or fools gold ...

Yes Chris, of course, I believe you... you just want it all for yourself don't you, you just don't want another gold rush. Quick lads, there's GOLD in them there hills...

Great pictures by the way.

As an aside, my Great Grandfather went to seek his fortune on the Klondike and came back with a silver dollar and a stuffed moose's head. I assume he had a good time.

[Jock Scot]

Yes Chris, of course, I believe you... you just want it all for yourself don't you, you just don't want another gold rush. Quick lads, there's GOLD in them there hills...

Great pictures by the way.

As an aside, my Great Grandfather went to seek his fortune on the Klondike and came back with a silver dollar and a stuffed moose's head. I assume he had a good time.

Don't forget that there was our very own Scots "gold rush" up here in the Highlands about 150 years ago, in the Strath of Kildonan.

[Barb T]

Yup - definitely pyrite. Both the color and the crystal forms give it away. Gold is really quite yellow in comparison - find a piece of good gold jewelry and put it next to the pyrite in your samples, and you'll see what I mean.

But, interestingly enough, Colorado pyrite from several districts is what's called "auriferous pyrite", meaning that it contains gold as an "impurity". In some locations, it's got enough gold in it to be mined as an ore of gold. But the gold still occurs in trace amounts.

[GMan]

Glad to hear that Barb, I grew up with the rumor that the impurity was something like what you said, now I can put the rumor into the fact column.