John-Edmonton; I just watched a video where a guy took iron pyrite

[vlad]

Three kinds to be exact, and basically crushed it, cooked it [several times] and recovered gold-then poured it into a mold.
He implied this could be done with any fools gold. He went on to say and do the same with galena recovering silver. I hate to think
I been peppering the Gulf of Mexico with low grade silver.....
What's the story?

 

[Dave J.]

Pyrite from a known precious metal producing area will often have recoverable amounts of gold. However regular straw-colored iron pyrite such as is often found in coal and other non-gold geologic settings won't contain recoverable gold.

Just another application of the principle "gold is where you find it". If there's no gold there, nothing you can do will change that other than salting the mine.

 

[Goldstrike]

Now if we could only change lead into gold! Think of all those lead sinkers we find at the beach! I remember years ago taking my eldest brother Brian (since passed on) up into the mountains where I live to do some panning. I still remember him seeing the fools gold glistening in the sun in the stream up there. He was absolutely convinced it was gold and was jumping for joy. I let him have his thrill for maybe 10 seconds then broke the news!! I agree with Dave J. re; iron pyrite in gold producing areas possibly holding a very small amount of gold. I wonder if it would be worth the time and effort to recover?

 

[vlad]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5Feh-zdcSs

 

[John-Edmonton]

You could find all sorts of gold with one of these, anywhere!

 

[vlad]

http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/050/640/i02/divining-rod.jpg?1368828854

 

[John-Edmonton]

Good idea! Saves on batteries and no restocking fee if you chuck it back into the woods because the positive protons were over-ridden by the negative ions on that particular day.