Pyrite (FeS2) is a hydrophobic mineral surface, i.e. of a type thus far inaccessible to the types of aqueous adsorption experiments suitable for study by reflectometry (NR), but which can be made accessible by the generation of thin films. Pyrite as a model surface is important for a number of technological applications (mineral flotation, boundary lubrication, solar cells), but it is also ideally suited for studying the effects of non- fluoro- or hydro-carbon hydrophobic surfaces on adsorption. We propose to study the structure of adsorbed layers of a nonionic sufactant series (C12Em, m=2,3,4,6,8,12). This initial characterization by nonionic adsorption seems a rapid and effective way of estimating how the pyrite surface operates in an aqueous environment, but the longer term aim is to study the adsorption of charged surfactants and polymers for surface modification.