Yellow minerals

Yellow minerals

There are hundreds of golden yellow minerals - gold, for instance! Pyrite and chalcopyrite also have a metallic yellow colour and are sometimes called 'fool's gold'. You can tell them from each other and from real gold by doing the hardness test.

Native sulphur is a bright yellow colour. Sulphur can also produce a nasty smell when it is damp - you would know it as rotten egg gas. Radioactive minerals like uranocircite are often yellow. Even diamonds can be yellow. Yellowish white diamonds are not very precious and are used for industrial purposes, but clear yellow diamonds are rather special and very valuable.

Gold (top right), wulfenite, sulphur and uranocircite are all examples of yellow minerals.