{"id":77865,"date":"2026-05-25T13:23:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=77865"},"modified":"2026-05-25T13:51:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T08:21:32","slug":"pyrite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/pyrite\/","title":{"rendered":"Pyrite"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Pyrite Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Geologists have discovered a rare, microscopic sunflower-shaped mineral, pyrite, commonly known as fool&#8217;s gold, within the lignite coal reserves of Gujarat, India.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Pyrite<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a<\/span><b> naturally occurring iron disulfide mineral.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has the chemical formula<\/span><b> FeS<\/b><b>2<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and is the <\/span><b>most common sulfide mineral.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a<\/span><b> brass-yellow mineral<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with a <\/span><b>bright metallic luster.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The name comes from the <\/span><b>Greek word pyr, \u201cfire,\u201d <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">because<\/span><b> pyrite emits sparks when struck by metal.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pyrite is <\/span><b>called fool\u2019s gold<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> because its <\/span><b>colour <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is deceptively <\/span><b>similar to that of a gold <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nugget.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nodules of pyrite have been found in prehistoric burial mounds, which suggests their <\/span><b>use as a means of producing fire.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Where is Pyrite Found?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pyrite is found in a wide variety of geological settings, from<\/span><b> igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to <\/span><b>hydrothermal mineral deposits<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, as well as in <\/span><b>coal beds <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and as a <\/span><b>replacement mineral in fossils.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can be<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">either <\/span><b>disseminated throughout igneous rock or concentrated in layers, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">depending on the depositional mechanism and environment.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It <\/span><b>forms in sedimentary rocks in oxygen-poor environments <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the <\/span><b>presence of iron and sulfur. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are usually organic environments, such as <\/span><b>coal and black shale<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, where decaying organic material consumes oxygen and releases sulfur.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pyrite often<\/span><b> replaces plant debris and shells <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to <\/span><b>create pyrite fossils <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or flattened discs called<\/span><b> pyrite dollars.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>In calcite and quartz veins<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, pyrite <\/span><b>oxidizes to iron oxides or hydroxide<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s such as limonite, an indicator that there is pyrite in the underlying rock. Such <\/span><b>oxidized zones <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are called \u201c<\/span><b>gossan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d which appears as rusty zones at the surface.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Major Producers:\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For many years, Spain was the largest producer.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today <\/span><b>Italy and China<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are the <\/span><b>world\u2019s largest producers,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> followed by Russia and Peru.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Pyrite <\/b><b>Uses<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>source of iron and sulfur<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and is used for the <\/span><b>production of sulfuric acid.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is<\/span><b> used to create iron sulfate<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that is <\/span><b>used to make nutritional supplements, ink, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lawn conditioner, water treatment and flocculation, moss killer, and many other chemical processes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Iron sulfate<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which comes from pyrite, is used to <\/span><b>treat iron-deficiency anemia.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Some types of pyrite<\/b> <b>contain <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">enough <\/span><b>microscopic gold<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to warrant mining them as a gold ore.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/researchmatters.in\/news\/rare-sunflower-structured-fools-gold-pyrite-discovered-gujarats-coal-mines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">RM<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pyrite is a naturally occurring iron disulfide mineral. Read more about Pyrite, Properties, Deposits, Uses, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":78043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4203],"class_list":{"0":"post-77865","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-pyrite","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77865"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104995,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77865\/revisions\/104995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}