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Introduction
| Pyrite is mainly composed of iron and sulfur, and sometimes contains small amounts of nickel, cobalt, gold, silver and copper. If the amount of nickel is enough to replace iron, then bravoite ((Ni,Fe)S2) is created.There are many types of pyrite crystal, among which cubic and dodecahedral crystal forms are most frequent. On the surface of cubic pyrite crystals lines are found very often, and the lines on two connected crystal planes are perpendicular. Being light copper-yellow is one of pyrite's major characteristics, which makes people mistake it as gold; as a result, pyrite is also nicknamed as "fool's gold".Pyrite is the most widely spread sulfide on Earth. It can be found in various geological environments, and usually gather in hydrothermal effects. However, if pyrite is exposed in air for a long period of time, it very often weathers into limonite, which keeps the crystal form of pyrite and is easy to find.Though pyrite contains iron, it also contains a lot of sulfur. It is not easy to process pyrite, so the extraction of iron is not typical; rather, pyrite serves as a major source of vitriol, and sometimes copper, silver, gold and nickel are extracted from pyrite. |
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