Pyrite Speciman query????

[razor66]

Hi All
Have a 7.5kg pyrite speciman that screams under the scorp in any mode. discrimination set at 6, ground balanced and depth set at normal.
My question is! SHOULD I SMASH IT?

[attachment 222315 003334.jpg]


Glen

 

[parrott]

Howdy Glen... Just a thought, It may not be pyrite. Pyrite is more of brass-yellow color. Often cube shaped and striated. Try all metal in an air test and see if you can ground balance it out. If you decide(?) to smash it, pyrite is brittle so watch your eyes... maybe wrap it up in an old rag or towel. js

 

[Fishers Ghost]

It doesn't look like pyrite.

Set the scorp to TR, Disc to zero and see if the speci nulls out as you bring the rock slowly straight in towards the centre of the coil. if it nulls out slightly and then increaces in threshold there could be some metal content.

 

[parrott]

Just a thought.... the zero discrimination point should be checked for calibration to make sure it is correctly set as explained by Fishers Ghost. Incidentally, this trick works great to check out any old mine dump known to carry specie of free gold.

If anyone reading this tread has a copy of Jim Straights "Follow the Drywashers" Vol 3; any edition this procedure is explained on pgs. 58-66 using various VLF's in on-autotune discrimination. It is not needed to make the iron/copper test samples as a piece of ferrite can be used to calibrate the null point.

Mr. Fishers Ghost...Impressive, as only a few "old timers" now know this trick. This is just one of the reasons that the "Scorp" has been popular over the years.

 

[razor66]

I set the scorp to TR, disc to zero, moved the coil real slow and it screamed a high tone before going quiet then back to the normal hum I had before going near it!!!!
Reasons please?????

Glen

 

[Fishers Ghost]

Please do the test again with the mode in TR, Disc at zero and Tune in MANUAL. Your test sounds like the detector was in Auto Tune.

 

[Fishers Ghost]

Please do the test again with the mode in TR, Disc at zero and Tune in MANUAL. Your test sounds like the detector was in Auto Tune.

If speci is Conductive non Ferrous then the detector will sound off. If Non conductive ferrous then threshold will go silent.
If there is equal amounts of conductive non ferrous and non conductive ferrous then the threshold will not change.

If the threshold goes quiet and then increaces as the sample is moved closer to the coil then it is high mineral but also contains conductive non ferrous.
If the threshold goes loud and then quiet the sample is high conductive non ferrous but with significant non conductive mineral.

If you have a multimeter with an Ohms Range then you can do an electrical conductivity test of the speci.
if ohms reading is very low then the sample is highly conductive and likely contains a high percentage of conductive non ferrous material.
If ohms reading is high then there is a high non conductive ferrous mineral present. This is a pretty rough check; You need to get the sample identified.

Looks a bit like Molybdenite?? is it very soft, Dose it attract to a magnet? Does it flake and crumble when scratched? Is the colour in the Pic correct?

 

[parrott]

Hey Fishers Ghost...Parrott here... It does resemble Molybdenum...

razor 66: Try this: raise your toilet tank lid and on the underneath of the lid you will see is not glazed... Now see if it by scratching the "spici" on the bottom of the unglazed toilet lid, see if it will leave a blue-gray streak.... Try scratching the 'spici" with something like maybe your fingernail or a metal fingernail file... if molly it will scratch easy.

If it is molly razor 66 needs to treat it gently as a molly crystal such as shown could now be worth a few bucks. js