Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v2.c41.s6.4

v2.c41.s6.4

Those ores which are obtained from the planes, or slopes of mountains; which are either yellow (pyrite is yellow), or red as copper, or reddish yellow (pyrite often becomes pseudomorphous after limonite and then develops brown colour) which are disjoined (individual crystals of pyrite), and marked with blue lines (grain boundary of chalcopyrite and pyrite) . . . . which are marked with spots like drops of curd (quartz is the curd-white mineral), dazzlingly bright yellow as turmeric (native gold), when broken, show lines, spots or svastikas of fine sand (minute crystals of pyrite occur between larger crystals; when isolated, such layers readily crumble away and become like sand grains; separation of metallic gold in the form of rings has been reported — the svastika represents the skeleton of a gold crystal separated out of gradually decomposing auriferous pyrite); which contain globular masses (decomposed pyrite showing iron hat); and when roasted, do not split but emit foam and smoke (i.e., sulphur dioxide gas).