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Gday everyone, was a bit bored the other day whilst suffering a recurring bout of that old yellow fever.
So had a little scratch around in the garden weeding . Whilst doing so dug up a couple of fist sized bits of highly mineralised quartz.
What the hell, it might help to cool that fever ? Thought I. Crushed and panned them , what do you know some gold so fine you cant see it with the naked eye and a piece smaller than a pin head.
Im not in a gold bearing area and dont know where the quartz came from , but helped quench the thirst.
Gold is where you find it.
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I would love to hear of some other peoples experience. Some a lot more successful than myself Im quite sure. Lol
 
if you put iron pyrite in water it will start to bubble and make sulphuric acid, Ive got a fair bit of it here so I do collect it then i use it to sharpen my files. Just add a small spash of weak sulphuric acid in aswell and don't forget about them as if you go back in 6 months there will be no files left.....
 
RuddyCrazy said:
if you put iron pyrite in water it will start to bubble and make sulphuric acid, Ive got a fair bit of it here so I do collect it then i use it to sharpen my files. Just add a small spash of weak sulphuric acid in aswell and don't forget about them as if you go back in 6 months there will be no files left.....
I think the splash of sulphuric is doing the job - takes a long time to dissolve pyrite in water in the slightest. Some other minerals will dissolve to give an acid solution but not many.

The bubbles are probably escaping trapped air, or simply because the water warms slightly and gas is released from solution - the gas finds it energetically favourable to grow into bubbles on surfaces such as pyrite grains or container surfaces.

"nucleation sites. The dissolved air will have a much rougher time coming out of solution unless there are nucleation sites (crystal surfaces) that provide locations at which the dissolved gases are much more likely to come out of solution. Also because of the high surface tension of water - it is energetically more favorable for a small bubble to stick to the wall with part of the bubble's surface area not surrounded by water than it would be for the bubble to break free and be completely surrounded by water". But most likely it is just air escaping from where it is already trapped in the pyrite powder - it will first appear on pyrite grain surfaces as it escapes".
https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/why-do-bubbles-form-in-a-glass-of-water-thats-left-out.html

Pyrite on a mine dump (i.e. in contact with oxygen in the air) will break down into iron oxides and sulphate minerals (eg jarosite) and that dissolves in water (the oxygen is key to speeding this up). But it is slower than watching grass grow.....
 
goldierocks said:
RuddyCrazy said:
if you put iron pyrite in water it will start to bubble and make sulphuric acid, Ive got a fair bit of it here so I do collect it then i use it to sharpen my files. Just add a small spash of weak sulphuric acid in aswell and don't forget about them as if you go back in 6 months there will be no files left.....
I think the splash of sulphuric is doing the job - takes a long time to dissolve pyrite in water in the slightest. Some other minerals will dissolve to give an acid solution but not many.

The bubbles are probably escaping trapped air, or simply because the water warms slightly and gas is released from solution - the gas finds it energetically favourable to grow into bubbles on surfaces such as pyrite grains or container surfaces.

"nucleation sites. The dissolved air will have a much rougher time coming out of solution unless there are nucleation sites (crystal surfaces) that provide locations at which the dissolved gases are much more likely to come out of solution. Also because of the high surface tension of water - it is energetically more favorable for a small bubble to stick to the wall with part of the bubble's surface area not surrounded by water than it would be for the bubble to break free and be completely surrounded by water". But most likely it is just air escaping from where it is already trapped in the pyrite powder - it will first appear on pyrite grain surfaces as it escapes".
https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/why-do-bubbles-form-in-a-glass-of-water-thats-left-out.html

Pyrite on a mine dump (i.e. in contact with oxygen in the air) will break down into iron oxides and sulphate minerals (eg jarosite) and that dissolves in water (the oxygen is key to speeding this up). But it is slower than watching grass grow.....
Is jarosite named after Jaros? Maybe he found it at a special site, I think I'll get his autograph, might be worth a quid one day. :lol:
 

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