Pyrite vs. Gold

Don’t be fooled. Even with your untrained eye for precious metals, you can use visual cues and a few simple tests to determine whether your metallic yellow find is pyrite vs. gold. 

Dubbed “fool’s gold” because its initial appearance is similar to real gold, pyrite has often been mistaken for one of the planet’s rarest precious metals. Pyrite is useful and offers some worth, but it lacks gold’s monetary value. 

If you find yourself needing to distinguish between pyrite vs. gold, here’s a closer look at the compound mineral and the precious metal.

What Is Pyrite?

Despite its nickname, pyrite has very little in common with gold beyond its metallic luster. Also called iron sulfide, pyrite is part of a group of inorganic compounds known as sulfide minerals, which are composed of sulfur and one or more other elements.

Trace amounts of gold, about 1%, can sometimes be found in a grain of pyrite. However, it’s typically not enough to mine for. In 2024, researchers discovered lithium in rock samples in the Appalachian Basin in Pennsylvania. They are studying whether pyrite might be a source of lithium, which is used in electric car batteries.

Prehistoric civilizations may have used pyrite to start fires. It was also used to fire weapons in the 1400s and 1500s. Modern uses have included creating sulfuric acid and jewelry making. Researchers are also investigating its conductive abilities for use in solar cells.

Pyrite can be found in sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks. It can also be found in hydrothermal veins – cracks where hot fluids flow and deposit minerals – coal beds and as a replacement mineral in fossils.

Some of the more notable deposits of pyrite are in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Montana, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington in the United States. Other countries with large pyrite deposits include Italy, Kazakhstan, Peru and Spain.

Price of Pyrite

A pyrite specimen can range from a thumbnail piece to a fist-sized chunk and go for $0.15 to $0.85 per carat. Although it is typically not considered a gemstone, pyrite cut as a gemstone or used in jewelry making can sell for $4 to $10 per carat. Some pyrite can sell for a little more than $100 per carat.

What Is Gold?

Gold is a chemical element and a precious metal. It is typically found with other metals, such as copper, silver, lead and zinc, and can be in the form of nuggets, flakes, dust or veins of gold ore. Because of its lustrous yellow color, gold has been revered across millennia and civilizations.

A dense and malleable metal, gold is a favored material for making jewelry and decorative objects. It has also served as currency – it is a reserve asset for global central banks and an accepted form of international payment today.

Most of the world’s gold comes from China, Australia, South Africa, Russia, Canada and the United States. It can be found in hard rock formations and secondary deposits, such as soil and gravel. You may also find it where the water flow has changed direction, such as where two rivers meet.

Price of Gold

Many factors impact the price of gold, including supply and demand, inflation, geopolitics, interest rates, currency fluctuations and market sentiment. On Jan. 27, 2025, gold was $2,745 per ounce.

Gold vs. Pyrite: How to Tell the Difference

If you want to check whether you’re holding pyrite vs. gold, you can conduct two types of tests – destructive and nondestructive – on each gold metallic mineral. Consider that any gold is valuable, so you don’t want to lessen its value by damaging it.

Destructive Tests

A destructive test creates conditions that affect the gold or pyrite. For example, an acid test exposes the minerals to nitric acid. The pyrite dissolves, but the gold remains mostly unaffected.

Hardness

Gold has a Mohs hardness rating of 2.5, and pyrite’s rating is 6 to 6.5. Gold cannot scratch copper, which has a Mohs hardness rating of 3. However, pyrite can easily scratch copper.

Sectility

Sectility is the ability to be cut into small pieces, such as strips. You can cut a piece of real gold with a sharp pocket knife. However, you wouldn’t be able to do so with pyrite.

Ductility

“Bend, don’t break” is the idea behind ductility. It measures how much a material can be stretched, bent or spread. Gold is extremely ductile. You can push it with a pin or pointed piece of wood and it will dent or bend. Pyrite, which is brittle, will break.

Streak

Rub a piece of gold across an unglazed porcelain plate and you will get a yellow streak. Pyrite will give you a green-black or sometimes brown streak.

Non-Destructive Tests

A nondestructive test doesn’t impact the gold or pyrite during testing, so it can be used to preserve the samples.

Color

Gold has a golden or yellow tone and pyrite is more of a brassy yellow.

Shape

Gold is typically found as nuggets, flakes or grains, although it can also be found in a crystal form, similar to pyrite. Pyrite’s shape is typically angular, similar to a cube, octahedron or pyritohedron.

Striations

You can often find pyrite crystals with fine parallel lines running down the faces of the cube or octahedron. Gold does not have any striations.

Find Out Whether You’ve Struck Gold or Found Fool’s Gold

While pyrite is not a precious metal like gold, it has value in several modern-day uses. However, its monetary worth doesn’t come close to that of gold.

Now that you know how to tell the difference between pyrite vs. gold, if you run across a gold metallic mineral in a stream, rock pit or mining site, you know how to check whether it is gold or fool’s gold before yelling, “Eureka!”

Frequently Asked Questions