"Fool's gold" (pyrite) is nice to look at, but not especially useful. That could change if the findings of a small study hold up. Unexpectedly higher levels of lithium - an element that is in enormous demand - were found in pyrite. This could be both beneficial environmentally and economically. Plus, a gratuitous shot at crystal healers, just for yuks.
I stumbled upon an interesting abstract of a recent presentation at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria (in case you happened to miss it). The title, "Potential lithium enrichment in pyrites from organic-rich shales," won't raise many eyebrows, but there's some interesting and potentially useful stuff in there. Here's the abstract. Pyrite, aka, "fool's gold" isn't just a pretty face; it could be another source of lithium – the "hot" element of the decade because of the demand for "clean" electric power in the form of lithium-ion batteries. (If you Google lithium shortage you'll get 4.5 million hits.) Although fool's gold (aka pyrite, iron disulfide) has generally been regarded as useless, (except for its gorgeous crystals), EGU presentation hints otherwise. Apparently, deposits of pyrite contain more lithium than would be expected, perhaps making fool's gold not so foolish. The group, led by Shikha Sharma, Professor, Department of Geology and Geography at West Virginia University, discovered that in 15 rock samples from the Appalachian basin, there was an inordinate amount of lithium found in pyrite. [This] is unheard of...I am trying to understand how lithium and pyrite could be associated with one another. Shailee Bhattacharya, a sedimentary geochemist and doctoral student working in Professor Sharma's lab Indeed, if there is a chemical reason why lithium should interact with iron disulfide it's news to me. The group postulates that lithium in the form of lithium sulfide (Li 2 S) may be found in pyrite deposits because of the temperatures at which pyrite forms: Li mobility is highly sensitive to…