FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Pete Richards]

[GabiG]

Thank you again! :-) You give me so much information. I'm very grateful! I am going to crush one of the smaller rocks and try separate all the metal elements as best I can. Then I will try what you suggest.

[GabiG]

I have now tried the scratch test against a stainless steel knife. Some isolated mineral crumbs from the rock sample did not scratch the knife surface when I rubbed them against the knife surface. In fact, they crumbled to almost a powder. Scratching one of the fragments with a needle caused some bits to come off the fragment. So, it’s possible to scratch this mineral with a needle. I also tried the streak test. The streak is dark grey with no hint of green. I took some more close-ups of the mineral fragments and I cannot see right angles. But the rock crushed well, so maybe the mineral fragments were also crushed too small. Anyhow, there were a couple of slightly larger ones to photograph. The magnet test showed that the fragments attached easily to even a weak fridge magnet. I think it’s ferrite but not absolutely sure. So, does that make it pyrrhotite?

[Bob Carnein]

Sounds like pyrrhotite to me. Mindat includes it in their list.