So I have a stone my mom discovered 10-13 years ago, because it looked like and contained an exterior shell of peacock rock, that’s what she presumed it was. She showed me this stone 1-2 years ago and I’ve been slowly sanding away that exterior shell because I saw between the lines, the deep yellow base color and strange heaviness. I’ve been slowly removing the other elements present in many forms including soaking in muratic acid and polishing it with compound. It now tests positive on all acid tests 10-22k and weighs 33gs… Is this a solid gold nugget?
Pyrite…the first thing comes to mind. For me it looks Pyrite for sure.
1 Like
But why the positive acid tests?
Acid tests only work to distinguish between metals. Pyrite is not a metal, but an iron sulfide, a salt.
Gold is very unlikely, but you can test the specific gravity.
Acid reacts to everything. specially HCl. So that test is not reliable in this case. Just SG will confirm.
Sg of gold is 19.32…while SG of Pyrite around 5.
Metal behaves differently while standing or filing, while stones behave different altogether.
If you pinch a little corner of the stone with a plier it will be crushed, break and turn into sand or dust…
While if it was gold…it will not detach…
Gold is malleable while stone will break,or cruched to pieces.