In the last week of January, 2023 there were reports on Instagram and other social media of the discovery of electrically charged rocks in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This was even called a “groundbreaking discovery” capable of being developed and turned into a money earner for that country.
There were pictures and video clips of a man holding two pieces of what appears to be metallic rocks which spark on contact.
The rock was fictionally called Vibranium.
Geologists who studied the footage believe the rock will be Pyrite, sometimes referred to as fool’s gold, a mineral rich in Iron Sulphide.
Such minerals conduct electricity well but cannot store it. Indeed, there is no known mineral that generates or stores electricity naturally.
The footage is therefore a media trick with someone passing an electric current from an outside source like a battery into the rocks and filming the like poles repel each other in a spark.
No minerals produce or store electricity but some are good conductors of electricity from an outside source.
photo credit: economic times
