# pyrite contain gold or silver



## mohanpatil.72 (Jun 12, 2012)

please tell me pyrite contain gold or silver


----------



## jimdoc (Jun 12, 2012)

mohanpatil.72 said:


> please tell me pyrite contain gold or silver




OK; "pyrite contain gold or silver".
Happy?

Please note that I just told you what you wanted to be told, since you said please.

Jim


----------



## goldsilverpro (Jun 12, 2012)

mohanpatil.72 said:


> please tell me pyrite contain gold or silver



Maybe. Maybe not. Can't tell without a proper assay.


----------



## Alchymist (Jun 15, 2012)

mohanpatil.72 said:


> please tell me pyrite contain gold or silver



Sure it does!
The 1000$ question is: "how much"

-Peter


----------



## EpicSilver (Jun 15, 2012)

http://www.minerals.net/mineral/pyrite.aspx 

the best can tell you, im guessing not enough to say so


----------



## Harold_V (Jun 16, 2012)

Alchymist said:


> mohanpatil.72 said:
> 
> 
> > please tell me pyrite contain gold or silver
> ...


Very misleading comment. Much like a brown dog bites a guy, therefore all brown dogs bite. Both of us know that's not true. 

Harold


----------



## Alchymist (Jun 25, 2013)

Harold_V said:


> Alchymist said:
> 
> 
> > mohanpatil.72 said:
> ...



Harold,
Sorry I didn´t see your comment before now.

The question asked was a very general question, but I was actually being serious about my answer.
But yes, all pyrites contain both gold and silver, and also coppar and cobolt, but most of them contains very very little, and are worthless for the amateur.
Pyrite is the principal ore in the production of sulfuric acid (World production in 2004 was about 180 million tonnes).
First step is roasting of pyrite in air: 4 FeS2 + 11 O2 => 2 Fe2O3 + 8 SO2
The sulfur dioxide is processed to make sulfuric acid, but the "pyrite ash", which is mostly red iron oxide, often contains enough valuable elements (primary copper, but also PGMs and Ni and Co) to pay extra processing. The ash is roasted with sodium chloride, and the values are extracted as impure copper chloride and reduced to copper metal. The copper is refined electrolytically, and the solution plus anode mud is refined to get pgm´s and nickel plus cobalt.
The gold and silver alone can not pay yhe whole process, but the sulfuric acid and the copper can.

So pyrite allways contains some gold and silver, but the interesting question is: how much
-Peter


----------



## rickbb (Jun 25, 2013)

mohanpatil.72 said:


> please tell me pyrite contain gold or silver



None of the pyrite I've ever found had anything other than a "golden" color.


----------



## Harold_V (Jun 26, 2013)

Alchymist said:


> Harold,
> Sorry I didn´t see your comment before now.
> 
> The question asked was a very general question, but I was actually being serious about my answer.
> ...


Thanks for your informative response, Peter. 

Fact is, I'm well aware of what you said, as I came from the Salt Lake Valley, in Utah, where Kennecott Copper operates one of the largest open pit copper mines in the world. If you have enough curiosity, you can find them on the internet. They also have a sulfuric plant, associated with their smelter, and produce train car loads of sulfuric acid daily. They also produce platinum, palladium, silver, gold and many other elements. 

While I agree that virtually all pyrite may have a showing of values, the harsh reality is that it isn't in commercial quantities--and would most likely not have value for the common person. That's really what is important, not the technical points raised, as they tend to send the wrong message. In most cases, processing pyrite would be a losing proposition. 

Harold


----------



## butcher (Jun 29, 2013)

Pyrite, sulfides of iron, not all pyrite will contain gold, this iron sulfide can contain contaminates of other metals like gold, in areas more rich in gold the iron sulfide is likely to have a tiny bit of this metal contaminate locked up in its matrix, in area of no gold, iron sulfide ore's can form without any gold involved, pyrite fools gold not only fools a lot of people into thinking they have gold, but can also be associated with gold, some prospectors actually look for pyrite to help them find gold.

Pyrite, or black sands another form of iron sulfides are also a good place to look for gold, the black sands magnetite and hematite are heavier than the white silica sands, and gold is heavier yet, so when panning in a gold bearing creek or river you will pan off rocks gravel and the whiter silica sand before the black sands and gold, and you can pan off the black sand from the gold with good panning techniques.

In the earths crust Iron is a major element, and sulfides are also probably the most common type of rock, so iron sulfides are very common almost everywhere, gold and other precious metals are not that common on the earth crust, some areas seem to be more concentrated with these metals, while other areas have little or none of these precious metals, so to say all pyrite, hematite, magnetite, or other iron sulfides contain gold is misleading, not all iron formed in a volcano to make iron sulfide would have gold, but if the volcano was rich in gold then it is possible a very minute amount of gold got locked up in the iron compounds, now the 1000 dollar question I still have is that tiny amount of gold locked up could I get it out profitably, so far with the cost of fuel and chemicals I have not proven to myself that I can, but mining the free gold not bound up chemically with the iron sulfides is another story all together.


----------



## Harold_V (Jun 30, 2013)

I agree with your comments, Butcher. 
While I don't recall the source, I read that one can assay pretty much anything and find a trace of gold, as it is one of the elements that is very widespread, albeit in very small quantities. It's not common to find it in commercial quantities, in fact, which is one of the reasons it has such great value. 

Harold


----------



## solar_plasma (Jun 30, 2013)

Harold:


> is very widespread, albeit in very small quantities. It's not common to find it in commercial quantities,



Does anybody know the english title of this film about gold mining in the USA with a historical and a geological overview?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK3_Td-Wi-A

It is quite interesting and entertaining to those, who, like I, had no idea about gold ores and mining.


----------



## JHS (Jun 30, 2013)

i think the title translates to The origan of gold,but i could not find an english version


----------



## Alchymist (Jul 9, 2013)

butcher said:


> Pyrite, sulfides of iron, not all pyrite will contain gold, this iron sulfide can contain contaminates of other metals like gold, in areas more rich in gold the iron sulfide is likely to have a tiny bit of this metal contaminate locked up in its matrix, in area of no gold, iron sulfide ore's can form without any gold involved, pyrite fools gold not only fools a lot of people into thinking they have gold, but can also be associated with gold, some prospectors actually look for pyrite to help them find gold.
> 
> Pyrite, or black sands another form of iron sulfides are also a good place to look for gold, the black sands magnetite and hematite are heavier than the white silica sands, and gold is heavier yet, so when panning in a gold bearing creek or river you will pan off rocks gravel and the whiter silica sand before the black sands and gold, and you can pan off the black sand from the gold with good panning techniques.
> 
> In the earths crust Iron is a major element, and sulfides are also probably the most common type of rock, so iron sulfides are very common almost everywhere, gold and other precious metals are not that common on the earth crust, some areas seem to be more concentrated with these metals, while other areas have little or none of these precious metals, so to say all pyrite, hematite, magnetite, or other iron sulfides contain gold is misleading, not all iron formed in a volcano to make iron sulfide would have gold, but if the volcano was rich in gold then it is possible a very minute amount of gold got locked up in the iron compounds, now the 1000 dollar question I still have is that tiny amount of gold locked up could I get it out profitably, so far with the cost of fuel and chemicals I have not proven to myself that I can, but mining the free gold not bound up chemically with the iron sulfides is another story all together.



Butcher, I´ll have to disagree with some of your statements.
1) sulfides are absolutely *not* the most common type of rock. Sulfur is the 15th most abundant element in the earths crust when we look at the number of atoms, and Iron is about 100 times more common. At least 99 % of all iron is not in the form of sulfides but usually in oxide form, and silicates are the normal type of rock forming minerals. Part of the sulfur is used to make sulphates.
2) Hematite and magnetite are examples of Iron minerals *not* being sulfides.
3) Pyrites and other sulfides are usually not formed in vulcanos, but normally in sediment types of rocks. Sulfides are collectors of gold and other elements, so they will usually contain more gold than the average of the rocks they are part of.
But I agree with you, that pyrites are usually not worth the effort to recover the values from. The processes are simply too nasty and dangerous. Roasting pyrites gives off alot of SO2, and also contains most of the Arsenic contained.


----------



## DarkspARCS (Nov 28, 2013)

Alchymist said:


> butcher said:
> 
> 
> > Pyrite, sulfides of iron, not all pyrite will contain gold, this iron sulfide can contain contaminates of other metals like gold, in areas more rich in gold the iron sulfide is likely to have a tiny bit of this metal contaminate locked up in its matrix, in area of no gold, iron sulfide ore's can form without any gold involved, pyrite fools gold not only fools a lot of people into thinking they have gold, but can also be associated with gold, some prospectors actually look for pyrite to help them find gold.
> ...


My 2 cents...

There are several species of the pyritical class of minerals, with color ranges from silver, gold, red, black, brown, and green. of interest is the silver colored pyrites, usually known as a member of the Arsenopyrite group. Some pgm metals can only be discovered via the alloidal make up within certain subclasses in this species... such as osmium and ruthenium. of special note is that all platinum group metals will only form into a crystaline structure as a pyrite.

yes... pyrites are valuable... but only in quantity. Reason being that all pyrites are polymetallic in nature and thus accrue a cost to process.


----------



## johnny309 (Nov 29, 2013)

Roasting pyrites is an exotermic reaction and can provide you with a lot of energy(in industrial quantity )....so....taking the fact ...in large operation....milions of tons of "INPUT MATERIAL".....PGM,gold and silver,nickel....is a "loaf" of money end product.....
The only dissavantage is the byproduct......metals...sulphur....the remaing...10-15%....is garbage.....and the space to store some millions tons.....


----------



## DarkspARCS (Nov 30, 2013)

johnny309 said:


> Roasting pyrites is an exotermic reaction and can provide you with a lot of energy(in industrial quantity )....so....taking the fact ...in large operation....milions of tons of "INPUT MATERIAL".....PGM,gold and silver,nickel....is a "loaf" of money end product.....
> The only dissavantage is the byproduct......metals...sulphur....the remaing...10-15%....is garbage.....and the space to store some millions tons.....


Actually, the sulpher and common metals left behind can benefit such an operation over time from what can be sold to metals merchants as classified concentrates as well as the sulphuric acid that can both be used for metal refining as well as marketed abroad...


----------



## johnny309 (Dec 1, 2013)

I meant to say the 10-15% resulting "garbage"....from 100%...it will be 40-45% Fe,35-45% sulphur some precious metals...and the rest is slag....
And yes they are recovering S2 making H2SO4 and sodium sulphate.


----------



## Bill R (Dec 16, 2013)

Pyrites are part of a class of minerals called "sulfides", pyrite itself is iron sulfide, there are many species of sulfide mineral. Chalcopyrite has a greenish cast and contains both copper and iron, and is one of the primary ores of copper (as opposed to secondary enrichment), Gold silver and PGMs are recovered from these ores as a by product. I believe what you guys are interested in is Sulfide ores mined primarily for their gold content. Arsenopyrite is what you're looking for, it can contain thousands of ounces per ton and is one of the principle ores of gold. It has a silvery appearance and is frequently found associated with gold in quartz, but it also occurs in many other rock types.
There is a cycle of Gold which you may have heard of, it goes like this: Gold is eroded out of its host rock and ends up in the local drainage as placer gold, here it is rounded and pounded by the cobbles that it travels with. Gold doesnt like to move so as the landscape is eroded the gold doesnt travel far from its source, it just migrates downward toward bedrock where it accumulates as a placer deposit. The smaller the particle of gold the further it travels, eventually (after long periods of time) all the gold in the placer deposit has been ground down and the particles flattened into small shiney flakes (old gold), these travel much farther and tend to run with sand (Snake River Gold), This gold continues to be abaraded and crushed as it nears the ocean (Columbia River Placers), Finally, as it travels most of the gold has been ground down to silt and clay size fragments and ends up in offshore Marine deposits (California). These gold containing muds become shale and since theyre on continenetal margins often become metamorphosed into Phylite and Schist during mountain building events (Orogenies). Gold, being a Siderophile element (iron loving) finds itself in pyrite or arsenopyrite crystals in the marine muds (shales), and after the mountain building process these are concentrated in veins along with quartz. Secondary enrichment is when the sulfides break down by the introduction of oxygen rich water that turns the sulfide into H2SO4 and Iron oxide and free gold. Much of the gold in sulfides is minutely dispersed as submicroscopic particles, when liberated, these form "mustard gold", in a poorly understood process involving bacteria these tiny particles weld together to form larger pieces, Mustard gold to sponge gold to nugget. During metamorphism, the gold in the sulfides can be concentrated into larger particles, Ive seen them in tiny "Egg " shapes and strange rounded masses (tiny). Anyway, this stuff is eroded and the cycle repeats itself. There are many mysteries about gold deposition, why do iron rich rocks typically contain more gold than felsic rocks? Why does gold migrate into sulfides? Why does native gold contain silver when silver is insoluble? The Geology of gold deposits is fascinating, I would encourage anyone living in gold mining areas to study up the local geology to get an edge. There is a new class of gold deposit out there, Ive heard it called Metasulfide (as opposed to Volcano-genic sulfides), It can occur in Precambrian Granites, Greenstone, schists and phylites, just about anything, they are composed of finely dispersed very small to micro particles ( you can see them sometimes with a hand lens) of gold bearing pyrite and or arsenpyrite, just "sprinkled" throughout the rock (a kind of sufurization), you cant even tell by looking at it that its mineralized, the only way is to send it off for an assay, Im hearing that these deposits can be huge and since it takes years to plan a big open pit deal, it will probabaly be your grand kids gold ore.


----------

