Sir Martin Frobisher was an English adventurer, seafarer, and explorer, who thought he struck gold on Baffin Island in what we now know as Canada. Excited and beaming with pride, he mined and brought back 1350 tons of his prize to Queen Elizabeth in 1578 only to be told that his beautiful, sparkling find was not gold, but in fact pyrite with some other minerals mixed into the ore.[1] Labeled a fool, he was forced to forego his royal seafaring grants and seek other employment.

Yet today, scientists have found that usually, where there is pyrite, there lurks gold somewhere nearby. In fact, even the crevices and niches of pyrite can hide secreted a small bit of gold, not enough to make you rich, but the evidence is there.[2] The tiny imperfections in the crystalline structure of the pyrite t…