If you’re a prospector looking for gold, knowing the answer can be the difference between being immensely wealthy and immensely poor! Many a miner has come upon what he thought was gold, only to discover that his dreams of wealth vanished when his “find” was analyzed.

What has come to be known as fool’s gold is a mineral called Iron pyrite. Since it is a yellow mineral with a brilliant luster, it can easily be mistaken for flakes of native gold in a rock.