Barite: World 

Production, Reserves, 

and Future Prospects 

By DONALD A. BROBST 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 1321 

Trends in use and production of 

barite. A geological summary of 

deposits. Outlook is favorable for 

discovery of new deposits to meet 

rising demand 

UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON: 1970 
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

WALTER J. HICKEL, Secretary 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

William T. Pecora, Director 

Library of Congress catalog-card No. 72-607768 

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 

Washington D. C. 20403- Price 30 cents (paper cover) 
CONTENTS 

Albstract -----------------------------------------------------------

Introduction -------------------------------------------------------

lJses ---------------------------------------------------------------

Trends ---------------------------------------------------------

Production --------------------------------------------------------- Barite in world trade -------------------------------------------

Outlook -------------------------------------------------------- Geology and reserves -----------------------------------------------

~orth Almerica ------------------------------------------------- lJnited States of Almerica -----------------------------------

Canada 

~exico ----------------------------------------------------- West Indies and Central Almerica -------------------------------

Cuba ------------------------------------------------

Jamaica ---------------------------------------------------- British Honduras ------------------------------------------

South Almerica -------------------------------------------------

Peru -------------------------------------------------------

Brazil -----------------------------------------------------

Alrgentina -------------------------------------------------

Colombia --------------------------------------------------

Chile ------------------------------------------------------

Bolivia -----------------------------------------------------

Europe -------------------------------------------------------- German Federal Republic (West Germany) ________________ _ 

lJnion of Soviet Socialist Republics -------------------------

Italy ------------------------------------------------------

France ----------------------------------------------------

1rugoslavia -------------------------------------------------

Greece ----------------------------------------------------- Great Britain ___________________________ -------------------

Romania ---------------------------------------------------

Spain ------------------------------------------------------

Poland -----------------------------------------------------

Ireland ---------------------------------------------------- German Democratic Republic (East Germany) _____________ _ 

Bulgaria ---------------------------------------------------

Alustria ----------------------------------------------------

Portugal ---------------------------------------------------

Czechoslovakia --------------------------------------------- Belgium 

III 

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CONTENTS 

Geology and reserves-Continued 

1\frica ---------------------------------------------------------

~orocco ---------------------------------------------------

1\lgeria ---------------------------------------------------- Republic of South Africa ________ ---------------------------

United 1\rab Republic (Egypt) -----------------------------

Rhodesia __________________________ -------------------------

Swaziland 

Tunisia ----------------------------------------------------

]{enya -----------------------------------------------------

Liberia ----------------------------------------------------

~alagasy Republic -----------------------------------------

Zambia ----------------------------------------------------

Tanzania --------------------------------------------------

Uganda ----------------------------------------------------

Somalia ---------------------------------------------------- Near East ________________________ -----------------------------

India ------------------------------------------------------

Iran -------------------------------------------------------

Turkey ----------------------------------------------------

Pakistan --------------------------------------------------- Burma _____________________________ ------------------------

Saudi 1\rabia ________________________________ ---------------

Other areas ------------------------------------------------

Far East 

China (mainland) 

Japan ----------------------------------------------------- Democratic People's Republic of ]{orea (North ]{orea) ______ _ Philippines _______________________________________________ _ 

Republic of ]{orea (South ]{orea) --------------------------- Thailand __________________________________________________ _ 

Oceania --------------------------------------------------------

1\ustralia --------------------------------------------------

New Zealand -----------------------------------------------

Fiji -------------------------------------------------------- Conclusions _______________________________________________________ _ 

References cited ----------------------------------------------------

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CONTENTS v 

ILLUSTRATION 

Page 

FIGURE 1. Barite: world production and U.S. production and consumption, in short tons, 1919-67 ----------------------- 8 

TABLES 

Page 

TABLE 1. Barite consumption by major industries in the United 

States ------------------------------------------------ 4 

2. Barite: world production and U.S. production and imports, 

in millions of short tons, through 1967 _________________ 5 

3. United States barite production, in short tons, by State, 

1882-1967 -------------------------------------------- 6 

4. Barite: world production, 1945-67, and world reserves ____ 7 

BARITE: WORLD PRODUCTION, 

RESERVES, AND FUTURE PROSPECTS 

By DONALD A. BROBST 

ABSTRACT 

The world reserves of barite in 1969 are estimated at about 200 million 

tons. This apparently large supply will last only 20 years, if production 

grows no faster during the next 20 years than it did in the past 20. In 1945, 

world barite production was about 1 million tons annually; by 1966, it was 4 

million tons. It is startling to realize that of the estimated total world barite 

production of 83 million tons, nearly 60 million tons was produced during 

1945-67. 

At least 80 percent of the world's barite is consumed in drilling mud for 

oil and gas wells; the remainder is used largely in the chemical, glass, paint, 

and rubber industries. In the intensifying search for oil and gas and the 

expanding industrialization of the world to supply the needs of an increasing 

population, barite consumption likely will continue to rise. 

Barite deposits are of three major types-vein and cavity filling, bedded, 

and residual. Since World War II, nearly 50 nations have reported barite 

production, chiefly from vein and bedded deposits. In the United States, the 

world's chief producer and consumer of barite, production is mostly from 

bedded and residual deposits. Other major barite production comes from the 

bedded and vein desposits of Canada, Mexico, and the nations of Europe. 

Geologic factors suggest that world barite production and reserves can be 

increased in the coming years. Possibilities for the discovery of new barite 

deposits similar to the large, high-grade, bedded deposits of Nevada and 

Arkansas are good. 

INTRODUCTION 

This report is a summary of world trends in the uses and production of barite and presents a tabulation of the world's reported 

reserves, as well as a discussion of the geologic features of barite 

deposits that will bear upon the supplies of barite available to fill 

projected future demands in world markets. With increasing demands for oil, gas, and mineral raw materials arising from the 

industrialization of many nations and the expanding economies of 

others, the world's annual rate of barite production has quadrupled, 

1 
2 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

from an estimated 1 million tons in 1945 to 4 million tons in 1966, 

according to information from the U.S. Bureau of Mines (1945-66, 

minerals yearbooks). This report will examine briefly some major 

aspects, trends, and prospects in the world's barite industry. 

The data concerning barite deposits outside the United States 

were compiled from many published sources and commonly had to 

be translated from pertinent foreign publications into English. 

The references from the foreign literature were selected to provide 

a wider knowledge of barite deposits for readers seeking information about them for scientific and commercial purposes. 

USES 

Barite (BaS04 ) has long been mined for use directly as the 

natural sulfate or as a source for various barium compounds and 

barium metal needed in many industrial processes and products. 

Many of the specialized uses of barite and barium products are 

hidden among the complexities of modern industry. A survey of 

the uses of barium chemicals by the Food Machinery & Chemical 

Corp. (1961) listed more than two thousand specific industrial 

applications in 17 major classifications. Most uses of barite require 

only a small, although steadily increasing, part of the world's 

supply. 

Most of the world's barite production since 1926 has been used as 

an ingredient of the muds circulated in rotary drilling of oil and 

gas wells. These muds lubricate the drill and the stem, seal off the 

walls of the hole, remove cuttings, and help to confine the high oil 

and gas pressures met at depth. Barite is particularly well suited 

to this purpose because it is soft (about 3 on Moh's scale of hardness), heavy (max sp gr 4.5), and rather inert. In 1967, about 80 

percent of the barite consumed in the United States went into 

drilling mud, as probably did at least that much of the world's 

supply, although statistics on world uses are not available. 

Much of the remainder of the world's annual supply of barite 

goes into the manufacture of glass, as a flux and to add brilliance 

and clarity to the product; into the wares of the paint and rubber 

industry, principally as filler and pigment; and to the chemical 

industry for the preparation of bariun1 compounds. 

Barite is a common industrial filler, extender, and weighting 

agent, and it is added to bristolboard, playing cards, heavy printing papers, rope finishes, brake linings, clutch facings, plastics, and 

linoleum. As a pign1ent, barite is used in several ways: as the 

natural (or acid-bleached) white sulfate; as blanc fixe, a white 
TRENDS 3 

pigment of chemically pure reprecipitated barium sulfate, perhaps 

best known as an indicator in medical X-ray photography; and in 

lithopone, a white pigment of 70 percent barium sulfate and 30 

percent zinc sulfide. The use of lithopone as a prime white pigment 

has declined rapidly since titanium pigments were introduced after 

World War II. 

Various barium compounds, but especially the chloride, carbonate, and hydroxide, are used widely as reagents and catalysts, as in 

sugar refining; the manufacture of synthetic zeolites for water 

softeners; sizing, waterproofing, and fireproofing for textiles; 

drugs, for the manufacture of vitamins, hormones, and blood 

coagulants; various pyrotechnics, notably green flares; stabilizers 

for glue and starch; coagulation of synthetic rubber; plastics; insecticides, herbicides, and germicides ; case hardening of steel ; 

phosphors for fluorescent lamps; bonding phosphors to glass for 

black and white TV tubes; reagents for the beneficiation of ores and 

paper manufacture; welding fluxes; melting and refining of magnesium; the recovery of indium; and the recovery of zinc from 

dross. 

Barium titanate ceramics are used in the electronics industry, 

and barium ferrate ceramics are used for permanent magnets. 

Barium metal is used in many alloys and as a getter in the degasification of TV and other vacuum tubes. 

In the construction industry, some barite is used in concrete 

aggregate to weight down pipelines buried in marshy areas and to 

shield stationary nuclear reactors. Because barite absorbs gamma 

radiation well, its use reduces the amount of expensive lead shielding otherwise necessary. About 10 percent barite is used with 

rubber and asphalt in a paving mixture suitably durable for parking lots, roads, and airport runways. Barium carbonate solutions 

are used to descum bricks. Recently the tires of heavy road construction equipment have been partly filled with a barite mixture 

to add weight as an aid in packing areas of fill. 

TRENDS 

The trends in the uses of crushed and ground barite in the 

United States since 1958 are posted in the statistics compiled in 

table 1, which updates the data in table 2 in the report by Brobst 

(1958, p. 70). The figures indicate that a prosperous barite industry 

is dependent on continued high rates of well drilling. With oil and 

gas requirements rising in the United States, there is every reason 

to believe that the demand for drilling mud will continue at high 
4 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

levels, and even increase. The statistics also show that the United 

States consumption of barite in the glass, paint, and other industries has increased significantly, to about four times that of 

10 years ago. Many of these uses involve "soft" consumer goods, for 

which demand will surely increase. 

Continued increases in the use of barium chemicals also may be 

expected. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Mines minerals 

yearbooks, the average annual production of barium chemicals in 

the United States during 1957-61 was 92,000 tons, and from 1962 

to 1967 it rose to 116,000 tons, a nearly 30-percent increase from 

the first to the second half of the decade. 

Outside the United States, long the world's largest consumer of 

barite, the demand for barite for all uses will increase rather 

sharply. Especially large increases in the use of drilling mud in 

the worldwide search for oil and gas can be expected. Not only will 

there be more wells drilled, but many targets will require deeper 

holes into high-pressure areas of deeply buried reservoir rocks. 

Such deep holes, with a greater potential for blowouts and leakage 

losses, will require large amounts of drilling mud. Other industrial 

uses of barite are sure to consume barite at accelerated rates as new 

nations industrialize, and as economies expand in the older industrial nations. 

TABLE 1.-Barite consumption by major industries in the United States 

[Data from U.S. Bureau of Mines ( 1957-67, minerals yearbooks)] 

1957-61 1966 1967 

Average Industry annual Percent Percent Percent 10-year 

consumption of Consumption of Consumption of trend 

(short tons) total (short tons) total (short tons) total 

Well drilling - 1,077,006 94 1,022,106 85 949,982 81 About the same. 

Glass -------- 19,075 2 73,660 6 91,220 8 Up four 

times. 

Paint -------- 16,453 69,895 6 59,698 5 Do. 

Rubber ------ 20,213 2 38,249 3 31,039 3 Up one-half 

times. 

Other 10,553 4,605 <1 39,166 3 Up four 

times. 

Total -- 1,143,300 1,208,515 1,171,105 --------

PRODUCTION 

Barite mining became commercially important when Europe and 

the United States were industrialized during the middle of the 19th 

century. Records of world barite production prior to 1914 are incomplete, but Germany and Great Britain supplied inost of the 

barite that reached world markets prior to World War I. In the 
PRODUCTION 5 

United States, the earliest recorded production was 160,000 tons of 

barite mined from the Cheshire district, Connecticut, between 1838 

and 1878 (Fritts, 1962, p. 29). From 1882 to 1914, the United 

States annually produced about 20,000 to 50,000 tons of barite 

(Santmyers, 1930), but not until the curtailment of international 

trade during World War I did a stable barite industry become 

established in the United States. Since World War I, the world 

barite industry has grown, and the United States has become the 

world's leading barite producer, as well as consumer. The barite 

production and import statistics shown in table 2, compiled chiefly 

from the annual volumes of mineral statistics published by the U.S. 

Geological Survey (1882-19·23) and the U.S. Bureau of Mines 

(1924-31, mineral resources; 1932-67, minerals yearbooks), reveal the fact that the total recorded world barite production is 

about 83 million tons, of which nearly 29 million tons was produced 

in the United States and another 10 million tons was imported by 

the United States. Nearly 75 percent of the world's barite production has been mined in the last 22 years. The United States has 

produced 35 percent of the world's barite and consumed nearly 50 

percent. 

TABLE 2.-Barite: world production and U.S. production and imports, 

in millions of short tons, through 1967 

World 

production 

Through 1914 ---- 16.5 

1915-18 ---------- 11,2 

1919-44 ---------- 16.7 

1945-67 ---------- 58.8 

Total ------- 83.2 

1 Author's estimate; few foreign production data available. 2 2,500 short tons imported during period. 

u.s. u.s. 

production imports 

1.2 0.2 

.7 :a.o 

7.1 .9 

19.8 9.1 

28.8 10.2 

Production of barite by States in the United States is listed in 

table 3. The apparent discrepancy between totals in tables 2 and 3 

arises from the fact that the total in table 2 is based on annual production figures for the entire United States whereas the total in 

table 3 is based on available annual production data for each State. 

Of the five major barite-producing States, Missouri, Georgia, and 

Tennessee have recorded production annually since late in the 19th 

century. Nevada has been a barite-producing State since about 

1907. Most of the barite from Arkansas has been mined since 1940. 
6 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

TABLE 3.-United States barite production, in short tons, by State, 1882-1967 

Rank State Short tons Rank State 

!_ ___ Missouri ------------- 10,236,000 

2 ____ Arkansas ------------- 7, 754,500 

3 ____ Georgia -------------- 3,994,400 

4 ____ Nevada -------------- 1,984,500 

5 ____ Tennessee ------------ 1,644,000 

6 ____ Califomia ------------ 770,000 

7 ____ South Carolina -------- 500,000 

8 ____ Arizona -------------- 317,000 

9 ____ North Carolina -------- 301,000 

10 ____ Virginia -------------- 200,000 

13 ____ Idaho --------------- 14 ____ Montana ------------- 15 ____ New Mexico ---------- 16 ____ Alabama ------------- 17 ____ Washington ----------- 18 ____ Utah ---------------- 19 ____ Colorado -------------

Alaska, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin -------------

Short tons 

100,000 

100,000 

37,500 

29,200 

15,800 

5,400 

5,000 

+ ll ____ Connecticutt ---------- 160,000 

12 ____ Kentucky ------------- 117,600 Total ------------------ 28,271,900+ 

1 Recorded production between 1838 and 1878. 

The spectacular growth of world barite mining began in 1945 

as world economy started its great expansion following World War 

II. The graphs in figure 1 show that in the 25 years from 1919 to 

1944, the world rate of barite production doubled, from about half 

a million to about 1 million tons annually, and in the 22 years from 

1945 to 1967, it increased fourfold, from about 1 million to 4 million 

tons annually. During 1945-58 there is a close positive correlation 

between United States and world production, but after 1958, this 

correlation is much less obvious, as other nations of the world increased their production at rates greater than did the United States. 

Table 4 lists the barite mining countries of the world and their 

production from 1945 through 1967. The countries are grouped by 

geographic areas and rank in production. This grouping also provides an order for the subsequent discussion of the countries in the 

text. The data were compiled from many sources, but chiefly from 

the minerals yearbooks of the U.S. Bureau of Mines (1945-67). 

Nations of North America and Europe constitute the top 10 world 

barite producers since 1945, but the disparity is great between the 

United States, in first place with nearly 20 million tons, and Great 

Britain, in tenth place with 1.6 million tons. Production records of 

some of the lower ranked countries are deceptive, because some 

countries began or ceased mining during this period. Appropriate 

notice of this is given in the text. 

BARITE IN WORLD TRADE 

Nations that produce large amounts of barite for export are 

Mexico, Canada, Peru, Brazil, Morocco, Algeria, Ireland, Greece, 

Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, and North Korea. The world's 

major importers are the United States and the Soviet Union. The 

United States since the mid-1950's has imported a total of about half 

a million tons annually, chiefly from Mexico, Canada, Peru, Ireland, 
PRODUCTION 7 

TABLE 4.-Barite: world production, 1945-67, and world reserves 

[*,no reserve figures available, but some reserves are probable; ___ ,no production data available] 

Production 

(thousands 

of tons) 

North America ---------- 27,717 

United States ------- 19,814 

Canada ------------ 4,039 

Mexico ------------ 3,864 

West Indies and Central 

America ------------- 39 

Cuba ------------- 39 

Jamaica ----------- British Honduras ___ _ 

South America ---------- 2,735 

Peru -------------- 1,430 

Brazil ------------- 713 

Argentina ---------- 396 

Colombia ---------- 155 

Chile -------------- 41 

Bolivia ------------ Europe ---------------- 23,326 German Federal Republic (West Germany) ---------- 8,288 

U.S.S.R. ----------- 2,830 

Italy -------------- 2,273 

France ------------ 1, 793 

Yugoslavia --------- 1,783 

Greece ------------ 1,677 

Great Britain ------- 1,664 

Romania ----------- 1,066 

Spain ------------- 579 

Poland ------------ 413 

Ireland ------------ 366 

German Democratic 

Republic (East 

Germany) -------- 335 

Bulgaria ----------- 149 

Austria ------------ 90 

Portugal ----------- 20 

Czechoslovakia ------ Belgium -----------

Africa ----------------- 1,900.3 

Reserves 

(millions 

of tons) 

92 

'83 

5 

4 

1 

1 

8 

1 

3 

1 

3 

• 

46.7 

7 

*3 

5 

3.5 

3 

3.5 

2.2 

2 

1 

2 

3 

3 

*5 

.3 

.6 

2 

.6 

19.7 

Production 

(thousands 

of tons) 

Morocco ----------- Algeria ------------ Republic of South 

Mrica ----------- United Arab Republic 

(Egypt) --------- Rhodesia ---------- Swaziland ---------- Tunisia ------------

Kenya ------------- Liberia ------------ Malagasy Republic __ _ 

Zambia ------------ Tanzania ---------- Uganda ----------- Somalia ----------- Near East -------------- India ------------- Iran -------------- Turkey ------------ Pakistan ----------- Burma ------------ Mghanistan -------- Saudi Arabia -------

Far East --------------- China (mainland) __ _ 

Japan ------------- Democratic People's Republic of 

Korea (North Korea) 

Philippines --------- Republic of Korea 

(South Korea) ___ _ 

Thailand ---------- _ 

Oceania --------------- Australia ----------- Fiji ---------------

1,001} 767 

56 

55 

10 

9 

2 

929 

565 

202 

90 

51 

17 

4 

• 3 

2,080.2 

850 

533 

656 

29 

12 

.2 

195 

195 

Reserves 

(millions 

oftons) 

12 

3.2 

1 

1 

• 

• 

2 

.5 

• 

9.7 

1 

3 

4 

1.6 

• 

.1 

21.8 

10 

3.3 

3 

• 

3 

2.5 

5 

5 

• ------- Grand total ------ 58,921.5 203.9 

Greece, Yugoslavia, and Morocco. The Soviet Union in recent years 

has augmented its own annual production of about 200,000+ tons 

with another 100,000+ tons of imported barite, coming chiefly 

from Yugoslavia, North Korea, Romania, and Bulgaria. 

In western Europe, Germany, France, Great Britain, and Italy 

are, or can be, net exporters. The Benelux nations import from 

their neighbors and North Africa, and the Scandinavian countries 

supply their needs from West Germany. 

Middle East markets are supplied from barite deposits in the 

Mediterranean region, but domestic industries are springing up in 

some of the oil-rich countries, notably Iran, and even in the United 

Arab Republic. 

South American oil fields are supplied mostly by locally mined 

barite, although Brazil does supply some exports, notably to 

Venezuela, which has no known commercial deposits. 
BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

3500rr--------~--------1---------+-----~--+---+---~ 

2500 

(/) 

z 

0 

1-

1.1.. 

0 

(/) 

0 2000 

z 

<( 

(/) 

::J 

0 

J: 

1-

1500 

U.S. production 

0~----~--~--~~--~--~----~--~----~--~--~ 

1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 

FIGURE 1.-Barite: world production and U.S. production and consumption, 

in short tons, 1919-67. 
PRODUCTION 9 

Eastern Asian markets are developing rapidly, and trading done 

there is mostly on a regional basis. Japan supplements its needs by 

imports from mainland China and India. Taiwan is supplied chiefly 

from South Korea. Australia's domestic industry is expanding 

rapidly, and its small imports of recent years have come from 

mainland China and even the United States. 

World trade in barite is not large, because most regional demands 

can be satisfied from relatively local sources, as attested by the 

long list of widely scattered barite-producing nations (table 4), 

and because transporting large volumes of such a heavy commodity 

of low unit value for long distances is very expensive. 

Although there will be spotty increases in international trade of 

barite as isolated temporary high demands are met by today's producers, the exploration for and development of new deposits will 

increase markedly all over the world. The success of these searchand-development programs will be the greatest single factor affecting the long-range future of international trade in barite. 

OUTLOOK 

The current upward trend of world barite production likely will 

continue. The rate of increase will depend mostly on drilling in the 

world oil and gas industry. A detailed discussion of the many 

factors affecting the future production of barite is beyond the scope 

of this paper, but the amount of barite required for the next 20 

years to supply increasing demands can be summarized in general 

terms. If production in the next 20 years is to continue at the 

present annual rate of 4 million tons, 80 million tons of barite must 

be mined. If the rate increases evenly through 20 years to double 

the current rate, about 120 million tons will be required ; if the rate 

trebles, about 160 million tons will be required ; and if the current 

rate quadruples, as it has in the past 20 years, then about 200 

million tons will be required. 

The projected barite requirements for the next 20 years at the 

levels just suggested come sharply into focus when these values are 

compared with the world's estimated total production to date-83.2 

million tons. Even if there should be no increase in the rate of world 

barite consumption in the next 20 years, the mining industry will 

be asked to supply an amount at least equal to the entire tonnage 

mined in little more than the past 100 years. If the fourfold rate of 

increased production of the past 20 years continues in the next 20-

year period, the nearly 200 million tons required is about equal to 

the entire sum of the world's reported barite reserves, as compiled 
10 BARITE: WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

in this report (table 4) . If the future needs of barite are to be met, 

now is the time to exan1ine and interpret the geologic aspects and 

the reported reserves of world barite deposits. 

GEOLOGY AND RESERVES 

The present status of knowledge of world barite deposits and 

their reserves as reported in the literature is summarized in this 

section. Reported world barite reserves are listed in table 4. A broad 

use of the term "reserves" is necessary here because of the many 

shades of meaning it expresses when used by authors the world 

over. The term "reserves" is used here to include bodies of bariterich rock of sufficient size and grade to be mined now or to warrant 

serious consideration for mining under slightly more favorable 

economic conditions. In this report, resources refer to concentrations of barite which cannot be mined until there is a change in 

conditions in world markets. 

The barite deposits of the United States were classified and 

geologically characterized (Brobst, 1958, 1960) in three major 

categories-( 1) vein and cavity-filling deposits, (2) residual 

deposits, and (3) bedded deposits. The same broad classification 

may be applied to deposits elsewhere in the world. 

Vein and cavity-filling deposits are those in which barite and 

associated minerals (commonly quartz, calcite, fluorite, and sulfides 

of base metals) occur along faults, gashes, joints, and bedding 

planes, and in breccia zones, solution channels, and sink structures. 

The latter two are especially common in limestones. Barite mined 

from these deposits may be either the principal product or a coproduct. Vein deposits currently are a major source of barite in 

many nations, except the United States, West Germany, Yugoslavia, 

and Brazil. In the United States, deposits in this category have 

yielded only an estimated 2 million of the 28 million tons of barite 

produced. Many of the vein deposits in the United States mined 

principally for barite have been rather small and expensive underground operations. Barite buyers in the United States have paid 

little attention to supplies available as a coproduct; the supply is 

too variable because of fluctuations in the demand for the principal 

product. 

Residual deposits are those concentrations of barite, generally in 

clay, that have been derived from preexisting rocks. These deposits, 

commonly in residuum from Cambrian and Ordovician carbonate 

rocks, are of great commercial importance in the United States 

because of their large size (in spite of low grade), ease of mining 
GEOLOGY AND RESERVES 11 

and beneficiation, and proximity to markets. Residual deposits in 

Missouri, Georgia, and Tennessee have yielded nearly 16 million of 

the 28 million tons of barite mined in the United States. Almost no 

information is available about residual deposits in the rest of the 

world. 

Bedded deposits are those in which barite of either epigenetic or 

syngenetic origin is restricted to certain beds or sequences of beds 

in sedimentary rocks. Some of the most valuable commercial 

deposits known, especially in the United States (Arkansas and 

Nevada), West Germany, Yugoslavia, and Brazil, are bedded 

deposits that contain millions of tons of ore having a grade of 50 

percent to more than 90 percent BaS04. With the exception of the 

long-mined deposits in Germany, some of the large bedded deposits 

were found and (or) came into production during World War II. 

In the last 25 years, a relatively small number of these deposits 

have yielded about one-third of the world's supply of barite. 

Bedded deposits in Arkansas and Nevada have supplied about 10 

million of the 28 million tons of barite mined in the United States. 

Since 1939, more than 7 million tons has been mined from the 

Magnet Cove deposit, Arkansas. 

Bedded deposits of the type in Arkansas and Nevada have 

geological characteristics that may cause the barite to be easily 

overlooked during fieldwork. The barite is massive to laminated, 

dark gray to black, and very fine grained, and commonly gives off 

the odor of hydrogen sulfide. The chief impurity is silica, and a few 

percent of organic matter is common. Except for its heaviness, 

much of this ore could be mistaken for impure limestone. 

New deposits of bedded barite were recently found in Nevada, 

and geological study by Shawe, Poole, and Brobst (1967, 1969) 

suggests that the barite was deposited along with other sediments 

in a eugeosynclinal environment during early Paleozoic time. The 

recognition of the possibility that barite may form a eugeosynclinal 

sedimentary facies opens new possibilities for world exploration 

for barite. 

NORTH AMERICA 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

The barite reserves of all grades of ore in the United States were 

reevaluated for this report. The reserves now are estimated to be 

83 million tons of barite, nearly half of the reported world reserves 

of 204 million tons (table 4). About 14 million tons are in the vein 

deposits of the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast regions; 19 
12 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

million tons are in the residual deposits, chiefly in Missouri, 

Georgia and Tennessee ; and about 50 million tons occur in the 

great bedded deposits, chiefly in Nevada and Arkansas. Many 

references to the geology and reserves of barite in the United States 

are listed by Dean and Brobst ( 1955) and Brobst ( 1958, 1965) . 

More recent papers describe barite in New Mexico (Williams and 

others, 1964), Arkansas (Brobst and Ward, 1965), California 

(Weber, 1966), Nevada (Shawe and others, 1967, 1969), and the 

Appalachian region (Brobst and Hobbs, 1968). 

CANADA 

The mining history, production, economics, geology, and reserves 

of barite in Canada were summarized by Ross (1960). Canada's 

total recorded barite production is about 4.3 million tons, of which 

about 90 percent came from the large epigenetic deposits associated 

with faulted and folded sedimentary rocks of Mississippian and 

Triassic age in the vicinity of Walton, Nova Scotia. These deposits 

and the associated base-metal sulfide and silver ore discovered in 

1956 have been described in detail by Boyle (1963), who also 

estimated that the barite reserve to a depth of 1,000 feet was 2.5 

million tons of ore containing 90 percent BaS04• Another 2 million 

tons of ore occurs in other large deposits, especially in British 

Columbia (Ross, 1960, p. 46). Ross has stated that barite resources 

are building up significantly as barite associated with metallic ores 

is washed into Canadian tailings ponds at the current rate of 

225,000 tons annually. Barite reserves of Canada are about 5 

million tons (table 4) , and resources are undoubtedly large. 

MEXICO 

Among the mineral deposits of Mexico are barite deposits listed 

in about 20 States, but the major mines are in the Muzquiz district, 

Coahuila, and in Nuevo Leon (Reyna, 1956). The barite deposits 

of the Galeana district, Nuevo Leon, are lenticular veins along 

northeast-trending tension fractures that dip steeply to the northwest in red beds of the Huizachal Formation of Jurassic age. According to Tavera Amezcua, Lopez, and Avila (1960, p. 49), about 

60 deposits have reserves of 100,000 tons and resources of another 

100,000 tons. Few reports are available about Mexican barite 

deposits, but the 3.8 million tons of barite that had been mined since 

1952 make Mexico one of the world's great producers. Reserves 

and resources probably are relatively large. The reserve figure of 

4 million tons in table 4 is from Chermette ( 1962, p. 36) . 
SOUTH AMERICA 

WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA 

CUBA 

13 

Cuba has barite deposits in northern and western Pinar del Rio 

Province that were explored and briefly mined in 1957 and 1958, 

when about 30,000 tons was exported to the United States. Total 

reserves were then estimated to be in excess of half a million tons, 

and one group of mines had measured reserves of 250,000 tons of 

barite (U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1960, Mineral trade notes, v. 51, no. 

4, p. 13). 

JAMAICA 

The most important barite deposits form veins in water-laid tuffs 

of Early Cretaceous age in the Benbow Inlier south of Guys' Hill. 

The largest of four mineralized zones has a lenticular vein as much 

as 32 inches wide and 750 feet long. From 2,500 to 3,500 tons of 

barite is estimated to occur within 20 feet of the surface. There is 

sufficient ore for local use, but probably not enough for export 

(Zans, 1951). 

BRITISH HONDURAS 

A zone of quartz-barite veins 60 feet wide, dipping 70°, is exposed along Vaqueros Creek in the vicinity of Mountain Pine 

Ridge, British Honduras. Barite of hydrothermal origin is associated with Cretaceous limestone, according to reports in Colonial 

Geology and Mineral Resources (1954, p. 287). Reserves have not 

been calculated. 

SOUTH AMERICA 

PERU 

Peru is a newcomer among the leading barite producers of the 

world. From 1903 to 1957, Peru had produced about 200,000 tons of 

barite; beginning in 1958, production has exceeded 100,000 tons 

annually, for a total production in the last decade of 1.3 million 

tons. Most of this barite has been m.ined from large hydrothermal 

deposits associated with andesitic volcanic rocks and dioritic to 

granodioritic intrusive rocks of Tertiary age in the Rimae valley, 

near Lima. Cabrera La Rosa ( 1962) has described the barite 

potential of Peru as great, with much area still to be explored. 

Reserve data are not available, but it seems reasonable to assume 

that Peruvian reserves of barite are at least 1 million tons. 

BRAZIL 

Brazilian barite deposits are listed in the States of Rio Grande do 

Norte, Para1ba, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Parana, and 
14 BARITE: WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

Minas Gerais (Abreu, 1960, p. 303-311). The largest known 

deposits are on Ilha Grande and Ilha Pequena on Camamu Bay, 

Bahia, where barite has replaced sedimentary rocks of Cretaceous 

age. Reserves are estimated at 1 million tons of high-quality ore 

and another 2 million tons of inferior-quality ore. The deposits on 

Camamu Bay were described in considerable detail by Bodenlos 

(1948). Deposits in Parana are anticipated to have appreciable 

reserves. Great parts of Brazil remain to be explored geologically. 

ARGENTINA 

Barite is produced chiefly from vein deposits in the Provinces of 

Neuquen, Jujuy, La Roija, and Mendoza, although Cordoba and 

Salta have recorded some production. Beder (1921, p. 21) published 

a short summary of the locations of barite deposits. Almost no information has been published recently on the barite deposits and 

reserves of Argentina. Small amounts of barite, only 15,000 to 

20,000 tons, are produced annually, and the entire production since 

World War II is only about 396,000 tons. 

COLOMBIA 

Wokittel (1956) reported nearly 1 million tons of barite available in Santander (300,000 tons) and Norte de Santander (600,000 

tons). Other barite reserves, which are unmeasured, occur in the 

Departments of Cundinamarca, Huila, Magdalena, and Tolima. 

Barite production in Colombia has been about 10,000 tons annually 

since 1960, so that the major part of these reserves is still available. 

CHILE 

Barite deposits are relatively common in Chile, in crosscutting 

veins and in metallic ore deposits (Vila, 1953, p. 108-112). The 

Caracoles deposit, about 120 miles (200 km) east of the port of 

Antofagasta, contains veins of white barite, average grade 80 percent, with reserves of 3 million tons. Many other vein deposits, 

relatively unexplored, are listed in the Provinces of Antofagasta, 

Atacama, Aconcagua, Coquimbo, Santiago, and Valparaiso. 

BOLIVIA 

No reserves of barite are known, although resources may exist, 

according to Ahlfeld and Schneider-Scherbina ( 1964, p. 320-321) . 

Barite gangue is reported in lead-bearing veins in the central 

Cordillera in the Cochabamba, Torotoro, and Sucre areas. Some 

veins of pure white barite occur in Devonian sandstones. Veins, 

termed of major importance, are localized in Ordovician rocks in 

the vicinity of Angaldo. 
BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 15 

EUROPE 

GERMAN FEDERAL REPUBLIC (WEST GERMANY) 

Germany has produced more than 10 million tons of barite since 

1900 and is second only to the United States in total barite production. In one of the world's largest barite deposits, at Meggen, 

Westphalia, barite and various sulfides of iron, copper, and zinc 

were deposited syngenetically during the late Middle Devonian in 

a double syncline, part of the Rhenish geosynclinorium (Ehrenberg 

and others, 1954). The metal ions were delivered to the sea water 

by hydrothermal solutions that entered through fractures on the 

sea floor. Barite reserves still available are estimated at about 5 

million tons. 

Recent studies of the barite at Grube Eisen, southwestern RunsrUck, Saarland, suggest that this ore had syngenetic exhalative 

sedimentary origin in Early Devonian time (Hofmann, 1966). 

These deposits are similar in many respects to those at Meggen. 

Barite lenses 140 meters long and about 10 m thick are reported. 

Reserve estimates have not been published. 

Another major source of barite is the famous banded ore of 

Rammelsberg, near Goslar, in the western Harz Mountains. These 

deposits, mined for a thousand years, have yielded barite, lead, zinc, 

copper, and small amounts of gold and silver from fine-grained beds 

in the Wissenbacher Schiefer of Middle Devonian age. The metals 

derived from volcanic exhalations were deposited contemporaneously with the enclosing sediments. Later, the deposits were 

slightly metamorphosed during Variscan (Carboniferous) folding. 

The reserves, calculated in 19·54, are considered final and suggest a 

mining expectancy of 30 years at the 1954 rates of production 

(Kraume and others, 1955, p. 332-333). These data suggest that 

1 million tons of barite is available. 

The U.S. Bureau of Mines (1960, Mineral trade notes v. 51, no. 4, 

p. 15) reported that barite veins in the Bad Lauterberg area, 

western Harz, had reserves of 1 million tons. These vein deposits 

are associated with granites of Variscan age, but not much is 

known about their geochemistry or genesis (Bolduan and others, 

1961, p. 13). 

Near Pforzheim in the northern Schwarzwald, some 40 veins 

containing fluorspar and barite are known, and some of the larger 

ones were described by Henglein ( 1934) . Hoffmann, Hulsemann, 

Isert, Landschutz, and Schlicht (1930, p. 302-303) gave a brief 

catalog of barite deposits in Germany. 
16 BARITE: WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

The total barite reserves of the German Federal Republic are 

about 7 million tons. 

UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS 

Most of the barite produced in the Soviet Union comes from 

deposits in the Transcaucasus region of Georgia, Armenia, ·and 

Azerbaijan: the Kutaisi district, about 50 km north of Kutaisi; the 

Chordski district, about 70 km northeast of Kutaisi ; the Kirovabad 

district, about 160 km southeast of Tiflis; and the Madneuli district, 

about 50 km southwest of Tiflis (Liubimov, 1966, p. 134, 144). In 

the valleys of the Rion and K virila Rivers northeast of Kutaisi, 

more than 100 veins of 96- to 98-percent barite as thick as 1m have 

been traced for several kilometers (Shimkin, 1953, p. 285). The 

veins, of hydrothermal origin, were deposited in tectonic fractures 

in a tuff-porphyry unit of Middle Jurassic age. The Madneuli 

deposits are among the nation's largest and have yielded much 

chemical- and glass-grade barite. These deposits occur in volcanic 

rocks of Late Cretaceous age and may be genetically related to 

dacitic extrusive rocks of Tertiary age (Nazarov, 1959). 

In Salair, near the Kuznetsk Basin in western Siberia, barite 

comprises 35 to 40 percent of the tailings from zinc and gold mining. Up to 1946, more than half a million tons of barite had been 

produced, and no threat of exhaustion was noted (Shimkin, 1953, 

p. 285). Reserves of 2 million tons of barite were listed for this 

area by Schenderei (1932, p. 34). Other deposits in western Siberia 

include those in the Altai area, where the deposit at Zmienogorsk 

was reported to have reserves of nearly 800,000 tons in 1935 but 

was considered exhausted by 1946 ( Shimkin, 1953, p. 285) . Small 

deposits were reported in the Askiz and Achinsk areas ( Schenderei, 

1932, p. 34-37). 

In Turkmen, barite occurs in the Kara Kala district in the Kopet 

Mountains, along the Iranian border ( Ahlfeld, 1934) . The mountains are formed almost exclusively of marine rocks of Cretaceous 

age and consist of a sequence of calcareous and clayey sandstones 

and clay shales. No rocks of Tertiary age are reported, and eruptive 

rocks are absent. The largest deposits at remote Arpaklen have 

reserves of several million tons of barite and witherite. These 

deposits might be of sedimentary origin (Shimkin, 1953, p. 286). 

In eastern Kazakhstan, lenses of barite at Kara-gaili may contain 

substantial resources, as great as 10 million tons. Shimkin (1953, 

p. 286) also termed these deposits as of possible sedimentary 

origin. 
EUROPE 17 

Deposits of barite have been mined in the Ural Mountains. At the 

Medvedevka site, barite has been mined from a vein with a maximum thickness of 8.5 m, a depth of 100 to 140m, and a strike length 

of 2.25 km. The barite content was 37.6 percent, along with about 

20 percent magnetite and some quartz. Mechanical concentration of 

the barite proved difficult during the 1930's (Shimkin, 1953, p. 

286). No recent production is reported from the Ural Mountains. 

The development of deposits and new reserves of barite and other 

nonmetallic commodities apparently has been difficult. Resources of 

barite seem to be large, but supplies of minable ore close to markets 

seem to be constantly in short supply. During World War II a 

production decline in the Baku oil fields resulted from a shortage of 

barite, and even in 1946 the barite supply was still termed exceptionally tight (Shimkin, 1953, p. 284). The Soviet Union today 

is estimated to be about two-thirds self-sufficient in barite as both 

production and imports continue to rise. Domestic production has 

risen from 80,000 tons in 1962 to 260,000 tons in 1967. In the 

same period imports have climbed from 80,000 to 150,000 tons. In 

recent years, imports have come chiefly from Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, 

Romania, and North Korea. 

Reserve data on barite in the Soviet Union are few, elusive, and 

difficult to interpret. Shimkin (1953, p. 284) reported that Soviet 

barite reserves in 1935 were 18 to 23 million tons, but that by 1948 

reserve estimates had been reduced to 5 to 9 million tons, most of 

which occur in the Transcaucasus region. From 1948 to 19-67, about 

3 million tons of barite was produced, leaving an unsupplemented 

reserve of 2 to 6 million tons. Chermette (1962, p. 36) listed reserves of 3 million tons. Orr (1961) estimated reserves to be more 

than 3 million tons. In view of the increasing demands for barite 

in the U.S.S.R., these reported reserves are not large. 

ITALY 

Few data are available on the barite deposits of Italy, even 

though barite has been produced there for many years. Production has nearly doubled, increasing from 103,000 tons in 1956 to 

171,000 tons in 1967. Recent production came from 20 mines, but 

the center of production has shifted successively from Lombardy 

to Trento, in northern Italy, and now to southern Sardinia, which 

produced 60 percent of the nation's barite early in the 1960's 

(Chermette, 1962, p. 35). The barite deposits of continental Italy 

occur in veins of good grade. The barite in Sardinia forms veins 

and bodies in limestone in the lead-zinc district. Barite occurs with 

quartz, fluorite, and sulfides in a complex combination requiring 
18 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

separation by flotation. Some of the deposits are favorably situated close to the sea. The Santona district, Sardinia, had reserves 

of as much as 1 million tons of barite, according to Orr (1960). 

Chermette (1962, p. 36) estimated the barite reserves of Italy at 

5 million tons. 

FRANCE 

The barite resources of France have been described in considerable detail by Chermette (1962). Barite occurs in hydrothermal 

veins in metamorphic rock and more rarely in basement granites. 

Fluorite and quartz normally accompany the barite, along with 

minor amounts of metal sulfides. Typical vein deposits are in the 

Central Massif and in southern France. Stratiform or bedded deposits that attain a thickness of several meters are well developed 

in Paleozoic rocks in eastern Montagne Noire (Herault), where 

barite is especially common in dolomite of Devonian age. In the 

Corbiere (Aude) region, other stratiform deposits in Devonian 

dolomite have important reserves, but silica and sulfides of copper 

and lead commonly contaminate the ore. One type of stratiform 

deposit at Pessens, in Aveyron, is interlayered with marl near 

the base of the lower Lias. These deposits have thin overburden 

and can be worked by open-pit methods. Another important type 

of stratiform deposit occurs at Chaillac (lndre) on the northwest 

border of the Central Massif, where barite occurs with nonphosphatic hematite. 

The deposits of the Central Massif-chiefly the Aveyron, Correze, Allier-Puy-de-Dome, Rhone, and Indre districts-have 

yielded 35 percent of French barite production. Barite veins occur 

in the contact aureole around the granite batholith of Mont Lozere 

in the Lozere and Gard Departments. The deposits of the Montagne Noire, west of Montpellier, have supplied 200,000 tons of 

barite from marly beds of Silurian to Permian or Triassic age, 

but the best host rock in this area is calcareous dolomite of 

Devonian age. The barite from these deposits is quite pure; silica 

and sulfides are practically absent. Hoffmann ( 1969) considered 

these deposits to be of possible diagenetic origin and of limited 

economic value. The barite deposits of the Corbiere (Aude) area, 

southeast of Carcassonne, are in the Mouthoumet massif, a horst 

of Paleozoic rocks formed during the Hercynian orogeny. The 

commercial deposits are concentrated in a calcareous dolomite of 

Devonian age. Many barite veins with sulfides and fluorite of late 

Hercynian age are scattered across the crystalline massif of 

Maures-Esterel (Var). Among many barite veins in the Vosges 

Mountains of northeastern France, the large barite deposit at Val 
EUROPE 19 

d' Ajol occurs in a mylonitized granite in the contact zone between 

the granite and Permian rocks. Other barite deposits of some 

economic potential are known in the Alps and the Pyrenees. The 

Armorican Massif of Brittany is poor in barite, perhaps because 

it is deeply covered. The only vein of any reported importance 

in Brittany is in Ordovician sandstone 2 km southeast of Paimpol. 

The report by Chermette (1962) concludes with a discussion of 

economics of the world barite industry, a resume of world barite 

reserves (estimated at 120 million tons), and a resume of French 

barite reserves by district. The national total reserve is estimated 

to be 3.5 million tons. 

YUGOSLAVIA 

Barite in Yugoslavia is exploited in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia 

(Nienaber, 1962). The largest deposits in Bosnia are near Kresovo, in the Krivaja Basin, about 40 km west of Sarajevo, and 

near Sanski Most and Sinjakovo. Barite deposits in BosniaHercegovina are described by Ramovic (1963). Bedded deposits 

of marine origin are the richest and most productive ones in the 

Sarajevo region and northern Montenegro ( Chermette, 1962, p. 

35). Deposits in Croatia are at Topusko, near Petrova Gora, and 

in the vicinity of Mrgle Vodice, in the Gorski Kotar, about 70 km 

east of Rijelka. In Serbia, deposits are near Negotin, in the area 

where the Danube River flows into Romania and Bulgaria, and 

near Misljenovac. The U.S. Bureau of Mines (1961, Mineral 

trade notes, v. 53, no. 6) reported the discovery of deposits with 

reserves of 1.2 million tons at Brezak and Donje Livade, near 

Cacak, about 120 km south of Belgrade. 

Barite reserves in 1958 were reported by the U.S. Bureau of 

Mines ( 1960, Mineral trade notes, v. 51, no. 4, p. 17) at about 3 

million tons. Production of 1 million tons since 1958, coupled with 

the new 1-million-ton reserve near Cacak, suggests that about 3 

million tons of reserves are yet available. Much of the barite 

produced is exported to the United States and the Soviet Union. 

Resources of barite are large and include much barite associated 

with sideritic iron deposits. 

GREECE 

Greece has been a major barite producer since World War II, 

from the argentiferous lead deposits on the Aegean Islands of 

Milos, Mikolos, Mykonos, Polyvos, and Kimlos. The barite deposits 

of Greece were described briefly by Siotis (1936), and the deposits 

of Milos were described by Wollack (1951). The stratiform de-
20 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

posits of Milos are mined from open pits, and veins in granite are 

mined on Mykonos (Chermette, 1962, p. 35). The U.S. Bureau of 

Mines (1960, Mineral trade notes, v. 51, no. 4, p. 15) estimated 

the reserves of Milos and Mikolos at 1.1 million tons of ore composed of about 95 percent barite and 5 million tons of ore containing 50 percent barite. Chermette (1962, p. 36) estimated reserves 

of barite in Greece at 3.5 million tons. 

GREAT BRITAIN 

Barite deposits are widely distributed in Great Britain, especially in Ayrshire and Renfrewshire, Scotland, and in W estmoreland, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Devonshire, England. 

The Muirshiel mine in Renfrewshire, Scotland, is one of the 

two mines in Britain currently worked only for barite. The veins 

are in Devonian and Carboniferous sedimentary rocks. The theory 

that the veins of this area do not persist at depth is not subscribed 

to by Hobson (1959), who said that the veins do go to great 

depths and have considerable lateral persistence, subject to local 

pinching and swelling. 

The other property currently being worked for barite is the 

Closehouse mine near Middleton in Teesdale, in the North Riding 

of Yorkshire. A program is underway to prepare substantial 

reserves at depth in anticipation of doubling production (Orr, 

1968, p. 100). 

One of the largest barite mines, the Gasswater mine, near 

Muirkirk, Ayrshire, Scotland, closed down in 1962 or 1963 after 

having yielded more than half a million tons of barite from veins 

in Devonian and Carboniferous sedimentary rocks. More than 80 

occurrences of barite are known within 7 miles of Muirkirk; most 

of these are small, but the veins of Nutberry Hill are as much as 

6 feet wide and appear to have major potential (Scott, 1967, 

p. 40). 

Much barite occurs in vein and replacement deposits of lead, 

zinc, witherite, and fluorite in Carboniferous limestones and sandstones in the northern Pennine district (Dunham, 1959, p. 115-

147). Most of the deposits are associated with east- to northeastand west- to northwest-trending fractures of small displacement 

which were probably formed during gentle doming in Early Permian time. Lateral zoning of the ore deposits is evident: fluorite 

is a common gangue mineral in the inner zone, and barite in the 

outer zone. The maximum amounts of galena and sphalerite occur 

in the outer part of the fluorite zone and the inner part of the 
EUROPE 21 

barite zone. The origin of these ores has recently been discussed 

by Sawkins (1966) and Solomon (1966). 

In Derbyshire, barite is recovered currently as a coproduct in 

the mining of fluorspar and lead. 

Cores from north of Darlington show that the Magnesian Limestone of Permian age is mineralized with galena and sphalerite 

throughout its entire thickness. Fluorite and barite of probable 

Tertiary age are most abundant in the lower part of the formation 

(Fowler, 1957). 

The 1950 reserves of barite in Great Britain were listed by the 

U.S. Bureau of Mines (1960, Mineral trade notes, v. 51, no. 4, p. 

16) at about 3.5 million tons. Since that time production has been 

about 1.3 million tons, suggesting that about 2.2 million tons of 

those reserves remain. Resources of barite probably are still large. 

The British barite industry has been shrinking in recent years, 

largely because of rising costs, depletion of reserves in developed 

mines, and the availability of low-cost supplies from abroad (Orr, 

1968, p. 100). Barite prices in the United Kingdom are £8 to £10 

delivered for chemical-grade crude and £13 for mud-grade on the 

Continent. These prices are simply too low to allow exploration 

and development of new mines. In 1967, imports of c:rude white 

barite for special uses were down 35 percent, to 51,000 tons, but 

imports of mud-grade barite for use in North Sea drilling were 

up 112 percent. 

ROMANIA 

A comprehensive summary of the ore deposits of Romania indicates that the mineral wealth is large (Superceanu, 1967). Three 

major metallogenic provinces are outlined, and each contains 

barite. The metallogenic province of Dobrogea lies along the 

Black Sea coast within the cratonic rocks on the southeast border 

of the Carpathian Mountains. In the northeastern part of this 

province, at Somova-Cisla and other places, are the old Kimmerian 

geosynclinal deposits with their fissure veins of barite, lead, zinc, 

and copper in limestones of Late Triassic age. New barite deposits 

at Somova were first reported in the mid-1960's. A polycyclic 

n1etallogenic province lies in the eastern Carpathian Mountains, 

where many reconstituted barite and metal sulfide deposits occur, 

such as those with important reserves reported in veins that cut 

beds of Middle Triassic age at Ostra. The third metallogenic 

province, the so-called "alpinide-young volcanic-inner Carpathian 

province," is well known and important for its gold and silver 

deposits of Tertiary age, but has few barite deposits. 
22 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

Barite production is rising in Romania, from an estimated annual production of 45,000 tons during 1945-65 to an estimated 

170,000 tons annually by 1970. Most of the barite is exported to 

the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. No reserve data 

have been published, but reserves are estimated to be at least 2 

million tons of barite. 

SPAIN 

Most of the barite mines in Spain are small, and the average 

recorded annual production from 1948 to 1958 was about 15,000 

tons from 18 mines in 11 provinces. By 1966 national production 

had increased to 65,000 tons. Little geological information about 

these deposits is available. The U.S. Bureau of Mines (1960, Mineral trade notes, v. 51, no. 4, p. 16) reported that the most extensive reserves are in the Provinces of Cordoba, Guadalajara, 

Navarra, Oviedo, Tarragona, Teruel, and Zaragoza. 

POLAND 

The barite deposits of Poland are in the Swietykrzyz Mountains, which yielded only 3 percent of the national production in 

1958, and in Lower Silesia, the nation's chief producing area 

(Kulesza, 1961). 

In the Swietykrzyz Mountains, three districts have produced 

barite. At Stravszinik, near Promniki, veins of 14 to 72 percent 

barite in Devonian limestone have been traced for 1 km. At Hucisk, also near Promniki, vertical veins of barite with sulfides of 

lead, zinc, and iron occur in dolomitic host rocks of Devonian age. 

At Wisniowce, veins have been mined out, but possibilities are 

good for additional discoveries. 

In Lower Silesia, three major deposits yield most of the barite 

from tectonic zones in the Sudeten Mountains and foothills. 

Veins in these zones contain barite, quartz, calcite, fluorspar, and 

various sulfides of lead, zinc, iron, and copper. The largest confirmed reserves are here (Kulesza, 1961, p. 588), but no figures 

are available. Vertical veins at Boguszow, the largest deposits in 

Poland, contain 85 percent BaS04 • Three irregular veins are as 

thick as 1.3 m. At Jedlinka, barite occurs in veins with braunite and 

chalcopyrite. Steeply inclined fissure fillings generally 1 m thick 

occur in sericitic quartzose phyllites of early Paleozoic age at 

Stanislawow, in the Kaczawski Mountains. In 1961, the area to 

the south of these known deposits had not yet been explored. 
EUROPE 23 

Barite might be produced as a coproduct with fluorspar from 

the veins in the Sowich Mountains. These veins are similar to 

those in Thueringen, Germany. 

Poland is well endowed with barite in hydrothermal veins, and 

the potential for the discovery of new deposits is considered 

excellent (Kulesza, 1961, p. 590). Barite production is increasing, 

according to the minerals yearbooks of the U.S. Bureau of Mines: 

11,000 tons was mined in 1961, and 60,000 tons was mined in 

1967. 

IRELAND 

Major barite deposits occur in the Ballynoe-Silvermines area, 

County Tipperary, where high-grade barite occurs adjacent to 

rich lead-zinc-silver deposits (Engineering and Mining Journal, 

1968, p. 70-72; Mining and Minerals Engineering, 1968, p. 40-

44). The barite of Silvermines Hill is mined in an open pit and 

occurs in a sequence of Carboniferous chert, limestone, and dolomite, all of which is locally brecciated. The barite beds dip about 

18° NW, and their thickness varies from 10 to 60 feet. No beneficiation is required for a marketable barite product. Since December 1953, more than 400,000 tons of barite has been shipped (Mining and Minerals Engineering, 1968, p. 40). The mineralogy, 

structure, and economic geology of the Silvermines district have 

been described by Rhoden (1959a, b), who postulated a hydrothermal origin for the bodies, but a syngenetic origin from colloidal precipitation, possibly of a biogenic nature, has also been 

suggested (Mining and Minerals Engineering, 1968, p. 44). 

Coproduct barite also is produced from the lead-zinc-silver-copper mines in Carboniferous limestone at Tynagh, County Galway. 

This barite is sold in British markets, and potential annual production is thought to be 100,000 tons (Orr, 1968, p. 100). 

The U.S. Bureau of Mines (1960, Mineral trade notes, v. 51, no. 

4, p. 15) reported reserves of about 900,000 tons of good-quality 

barite in the Benbulben Range, County Sligo, and reserves of 

1.5 million tons of barite in the Silvermines district. Other occurrences are in Counties Wicklow and Monaghan. 

GERl\IAN DEl\IOCRATIC REPUBLIC (E.-\ST GERMANY) 

Barite deposits in East Germany are concentrated in the Erzgebirge, Harz, Vogtland, and the Thliringer Wald. Klaus and 

Schroder ( 1967) briefly described many deposits and summarized 

n1uch information in a paper on geophysical prospecting for 

barite and fluorspar. (They concluded that no specific geophysical 
24 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

technique was ideal for finding covered or otherwise hidden deposits of barite and fluorspar.) Bolduan, Richter, and Tischendorf 

( 1961) reported a shortage of chemical- and pigment-grade barite 

and described the geology of some newly explored deposits at 

Schneckenstein, 10 km southeast of Falkenstein, Vogtland, that 

are believed to have substantial reserves of barite. The deposits 

are in metamorphic rocks in the outer contact zone of the Eibenstocker Granite of Variscan age. Selective mining is necessary, 

but a product suitable for chemical- and pigment-grade barite is 

obtainable. At Huhn Trusetal, on the southwestern border of the 

Thliringer Wald, veins containing barite and fluorspar in the ratio 

of 3 :1 occur in old Paleozoic mica schists and gneisses and associated Variscan granites (Pratzka, 1959). Metasomatic veins of 

barite in the Riffkalk of the Middle Zechstein (Permian age) occur 

at Leutnitz, 4 km west of Bad Blankenburg in the Rinnetal, 

Thliringen, where the reserves were conservatively estimated at 

1 million tons (Bender, 1934). 

Barite reserves in East Germany probably are 3 million tons, 

and current rates of production are 25,000 to 30,000 tons annually. 

BULGARIA 

Barite is common in Bulgaria, according to summaries of the 

geology and ore deposits of that nation compiled by Jovcev (1965) 

and by Reh (1966). Barite deposits occur in two of the three 

major tectonic divisions of the country-in the Rhodope massif 

to the south, and in the centrally located Balkanide belt. 

Barite is abundant in widely distributed deposits of lead and 

zinc associated with sedimentary and igneous rocks of Tertiary 

age and various metamorphic rocks of presumed Precambrian age 

in the Rhodope massif. Barite is especially abundant and has 

been produced from deposits near Momchilgrad in the Madan 

district (Bogdanov, 1963, pl. 1) and in the eastern reaches of the 

massif (Kostov, 1963, pl. 1). 

The Balkanide belt is a complex anticlinorium composed of two 

large elements, the Balkan Mountains on the north and the Sredna 

Gora on the south. The major ore deposits of the Balkanide belt 

occur in the west and are of Caledonian (early Paleozoic), Variscan (Carboniferous), and Alpine (Tertiary) age. The fissure 

veins of the Ciporovci district contain complex ores of lead, zinc, 

siderite, and barite. The Vraca-Iske district has lead-zinc and 

copper deposits with some pyrite and barite. The metallogenic 

province of the Sredna Gora extends eastward across Bulgaria to 
EUROPE 25 

northeastern Asia Minor. The province is best known for its copper deposits, with subordinate ores of manganese, iron, molybdenum, and barite in commercial amounts. The Sofia-Panagyurishte region is a major center of mineral deposits in which large 

bodies of iron ore and barite, discovered about 10 years ago, have 

been developed and are now in production at Kremikovtsy, 16 km 

northeast of Sofia. 

The deposits at Kremikovtsy are hydrothermal metasomatic 

replacement bodies in dolomitic limestones of Middle Triassic age 

covered by 14 to 195 m of Pliocene sediments (Tonev, 1961). The 

ore minerals include hematite, limonite, siderite, manganese 

oxides, and barite, as well as small amounts of silver associated 

with the siderite (10 g per ton) and the barite (26 g per ton). 

The barite forms as much as 43 percent of lenses and pockets 

3 to 55 m thick, and 15 to 20 percent of some of the hematitic, 

sideritic, and limonitic ores. Barite is a coproduct, but beneficiation is required. By 1964, the open pits were supplying a great 

part of the Bulgarian barite production (Tonev, 1964, p. 102). 

Bulgarian barite production rose from 21,000 tons in 1962 to an 

estimated 45,000 tons in 1967, presumably a reflection of mining 

at Kremikovtsy, where reported reserves of all ores total 248 

million tons. 

The barite reserves of Bulgaria probably exceed 5 million tons, 

and the resources are large. 

AUSTRIA 

As of 1960, the U.S. Bureau of Mines (1960, Mineral trade 

notes, v. 51, no. 4, p. 14) reported that Austria supplied about 40 

percent of its needs from its own annual production of less than 

10,000 tons. Domestic sources were Grosskogl, Tyrol, where barite 

was produced from deposits formerly worked for chalcopyrite; 

Trattenbach, Lower Austria, where barite was mined from 

sideritic ore; and Oberstiering, Styria, where barite occurs with 

lead and zinc. 

Beds several tenths of a meter thick in the W etterstein Limestone in the Gailtal Alps contain barite and associated fluorite, 

calcite, quartz, sphalerite, galena, pyrite, marcasite, and clay 

minerals (Schulz, 1967). The deposits are believed to be syngenetic, and the source of the barium is attributed to submarine 

hydrothermal emanations. No estimate of the reserves for these 

deposits was given. 
26 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

PORTUGAL 

Total barite production in Portugal is very small, being only 

about 20,000 tons in the past 20 years (table 4). Barite occurs in 

high-grade deposits at Castro Verde and Mertola in the Beja district; as a gangue mineral with galena at Segura, Castelo Branco 

district; and as a banded filling in the iron-manganese deposits of 

Cereal do Alentejo, Setubal district. Reserves of barite in 1953 

were reported by the U.S. Bureau of Mines (1960, Mineral trade 

notes, v. 51, no. 4, p. 16) as 370,000 tons at Segura and "several 

hundred thousand tons" at Cereal. Most of this reserve is presumably still available. 

CZECHOSLOVAKIA 

Vein deposits of barite are shown on recent mineral deposit 

maps of Czechoslovakia (Svoboda and others, 1966). Small deposits of barite are shown near Pernarec, northwest of Plzen 

(Pilsen). Other deposits are reported to contain barite with 

fluorspar and quartz in '"the crystalline rocks of the Krusne and 

Smirciny Mountains in northwestern Bohemia. The amount of 

barite in these deposits decreases with depth (Svoboda and others, 

1966, p. 148). Barite gangue fills faults in ore deposits in the 

Slavkovsky-Les Mountains and some barite is known in the Brno 

lVIassif. In northern Moravia, barite occurs with lead-zinc ores in 

the Nizky Jesnik Mountains. 

The largest concentrations of barite in Czechoslovakia are associated with the well-known siderite-sulfide veins of the Rudnany 

region in the western Carpathian Mountains of eastern Slovakia. 

The mineralogy and geochemistry are described in detail by 

Bernard ( 1961). The deposits, composed chiefly of siderite, barite, 

and some sulfides, are part of the "Zips-Gomorer Erzgebirge" in 

the old Alpine-West Carpathian ore province associated with intensive magmatic activity of the Gemeride Granite of Middle 

Cretaceous age (Bernard, 1961, p. 192). The veins occur in zones 

many meters wide that continue in length for as much as 30 km. 

The veins in one area extend to a depth of 200 m and are zoned 

both laterally and vertically. The host rocks are metamorphosed 

sedimentary rocks of Paleozoic age. Barite and siderite are the 

major components of the Drozdiak and Hruba veins. In the Hruba 

vein, barite is concentrated in the upper part and is believed to 

occur in the western part of the vein, which has not yet been 

mined. The first of two generations of barite is of greater commercial importance because this early barite filled voids or formed 

great metasomatic complexes in the siderite veins. The reserves 
EUROPE 27 

of these deposits are estimated to be at least 2 million tons, and 

the resources are undoubtedly large. 

BELGIUM 

Barite has not been produced in Belgium since 1913, when the 

Fleurus mine near Charleroi, Hainaut Province, was flooded. 

From 1890 to 1913 the Fleurus mine yielded 670,000 tons of 

excellent-quality white crystalline massive barite from a replacement body in Viseen limestone (Chermette, 1962, p. 36). The 

Fleurus area has been drilled recently, and reserves of 600,000 

tons of barite have been located (Industrial Minerals, 1968). 

Exploration for barite also is underway in the Vierves area, in 

southeastern Namur Province (Orr, 1968, p. 100). 

AFRICA 

De Kun ( 1965, p. 405-409) reviewed the distribution and 

geology of barite deposits in Africa. Current major sources of 

barite are the veins of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and 

Algeria, where reserves of 12 million tons were estimated by 

Chermette (1962, p. 36). In addition to the deposits described in 

the following sections on individual nations, barite occurrences, 

mostly in veins, are reported by De Kunin Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, 

Gabon, and Burundi. Exploration and need for barite in Africa 

are just beginning. Major barite resources are associated with the 

carbonatites of East Africa. 

MOROCCO 

The barite deposits of Morocco were described by Huvelin 

(1962). Large amounts of barite have come from the Jebel Irhoud 

mine at the west end of the Paleozoic Jebilet massif. The barite 

occurs in veins and replacement bodies in Paleozoic carbonate 

rocks near the margins of fault blocks. The deposits are described 

as telethermal and post-Triassic in age. Reserves of "possible ore" 

were estimated in 1960 at about 800,000 tons. A mineralized district in the High Atlas has veins enclosed in purplish-red sandstone, conglomerate, and shale of probable Permian age. Veins at 

Zelmou in eastern Morocco have reserves of more than 2 million 

tons that should be exploitable in spite of their remote location. 

Barite veins with reserves of 100,000 tons were already being 

mined in 1962 at Glib-en-Nam, 32 km south of Oujda. At Bou 

Ousel, in Central Morocco, a large body of siliceous siderite and 

barite must await better means of beneficiation before about 4.5 

million tons of barite can be recovered. 
28 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

ALGERIA 

The principal barite deposits of Algeria are concentrated in 

Grand Kabylia, east of Algiers, and in the vicinity of Algiers 

(De Kun, 1965, p. 405). About 60 percent of the 1-million-ton 

Algerian reserves of barite is in an area of about 3 square miles 

near Keddara, where barite veins cut sedimentary rocks of Jurassic and Tertiary age. 

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA 

One of the largest barite deposits known in Africa, at Gams, 

N amaqualand, also contains manganiferous iron ore and hematite 

(Coetzee, 1958). Good-quality barite, mostly gray, in these deposits dips 30°-50° and has been traced 8,300 feet along strike. 

The barite is believed to be more continuous than the adjacent 

and parallel veins of iron ore. The ore deposits are at or near the 

contact of recrystallized quartzite and biotite schist on the Gamsberg, a doubly plunging anticline. The origin of deposits is 

attributed to metasomatic replacement of the country rock from 

an igneous source. Coetzee estimated that 3 million tons of ore is 

available in the deposit's known depth of at least 100 feet. 

Other barite deposits are listed by De Kun (1965, p. 409) and 

are reported in a mineral resources volume compiled by the South 

Africa Geological Survey (1959). 

Among the mineral resources of Bechuanaland is barite in the 

sedimentary rocks of the Waterberg System north of Molepolole 

in Bakwena tribal territory, and in quartzitic and calcareous 

metasedimentary rocks in the basement complex of the Matsitamma area (Boocock, 1965, p. 399). No further information is 

available. 

UNITED ARAB REPUBLIC (EGYPT) 

The discovery of oil in the Sinai-Gulf of Suez area in Egypt 

has created a small domestic barite industry. Said (1962, p. 264) 

made brief mention of rare veins of barite of shallow mesothermal 

to epithermal origin scattered through the Eastern Desert. Barite 

occurs in pink granite east of Aswan; in quartz veins with galena 

at Siwigat el-Soda; and in quartz veins with a little stibnite, at an 

unspecified location. In a resume of ore deposits in the United 

Arab Republic, Reh (1965, p. 611) cited a barite deposit at Wadi 

Dib in a geologically complex area on the west coast of the Gulf 

of Suez. No reserve data are available. 
AFRICA 29 

RHODESIA 

Reserves of 1 million tons of barite are reported by the U.S. 

Bureau of Mines (1964, Mineral trade notes, v. 58, no. 4) for the 

Shamva district, Rhodesia. At the Dodge mine, the chief producer 

of the district, barite occurs in lenticular veins along the contact 

between limestone and banded ironstone. 

SWAZILAND 

Barite is mined from vein deposits at the Londosi mine northeast of Oshoek, near the Transvaal border. In 1961, four veins 

ranging in thickness from 1 to 4 feet were reported to have reserves of 1 million tons (U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1961, Mineral 

trade notes, no. 11). These deposits supply South African glass 

and paint industries. De Kun (1965, p. 409) reported barite veins 

in the Londosi Valley 5 to 6 feet thick that contain as much as 4 

percent zinc. The Overseas Geological Surveys (London) Annual 

Report for 1963 (Davies, 1964, p. 92) reported the discovery of 

two new barite deposits in the remote Piggs Peak district. The 

veins are 700 feet long and as much as 7 feet wide. Total barite 

reserves of Swaziland are not shown. 

TUNISIA 

Barite in Tunisia is associated chiefly with fluorite and basemetal veins. Reserve data are lacking (De Kun, 1965, p. 407). 

KENYA 

Three hundred tons of barite was mined in Kenya during 1965-

67, according to the U.S. Bureau of Mines (1967, Minerals 

yearbook). 

LIBERIA 

Six barite veins have recently been described in Precambrian 

granitic gneisses in an area of about 20 square miles in the Gibi 

area, eastern Montserrado County, Liberia (Pomerene and Stewart, 1967). Reserves of barite may be as much as 2 million tons 

(Pomerene and Stewart, 1967, p. 19), and 70 percent of the reserves are probably in the largest deposit. 

MALAGASY REPUBLIC 

According to Murdock (1963, p. 109), comparatively large 

reserves of barite are known in the Andavakoera quartz-barite 

veins in the Ambilobe region (lat 13°12' S., long 49°06' E.) of 

the Malagasy Republic. Veins exposed in the Ankitokazo-Andafi.a 
30 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

area and the Bereziky sector are more amenable to exploitation 

now than those of the Andavakoera system. Other deposits are 

known in the Ambakirano-Bobasatrana region southeast of Ambilobe. Total reserves in all these deposits are estimated at 500,000 

tons. Reserves of 2,000 tons are available in a vein 2 m wide at 

Ampandrana, 20 km northwest of Ambositra. 

ZAMBIA 

Five occurrences of barite in the former territory of Northern 

Rhodesia are of interest, especially one about 17 miles south of 

Mporokoso, in the valley of the Luangwa River (Reeve, 1963, p. 

148). A 6-inch-thick barite bed overlies a 3-foot-thick bed of 

laminated chert in a 200-foot section of red and blue shales of the 

"Plateau Series." The shales are rarely exposed, but at four 

places within 27 miles the chert and barite beds are exposed. 

The barite is light and dark gray and assayed 94.79 percent 

BaS04. The association of bedded barite with siliceous rocks appears similar to that known in Arkansas and Nevada and suggests 

that the "Plateau Series" would be worth exploring for large 

deposits of bedded barite. 

Deposits of barite occur near the contact of granite and schist 

south of the Kafue River, about 14 miles east of Kafue Township. 

Residual boulders of coarse-grained white to brown iron-stained 

barite occur in three areas along a strike of half a mile (Guernsey, 1952). 

Three other occurrences mentioned by Reeve (1963) were 

considered minor. 

TANZANIA 

No minable deposits of barite are known in Tanzania (Harris, 

1961, p. 33), but barite occurs as a gangue mineral with quartz 

and carbonates in a number of gold and base-metal veins in the 

Western Rift zone, especially in the Mpanda mineral field and 

the Lupa goldfield, and is reported in the Musoma goldfield. Barite 

also occurs in sedimentary rocks, in veinlets in dolomitic limestones in the Kigoma and Handeni areas, as nodules in the Karroo 

sandstones in the coal fields of the southwest, and in veinlets cutting sandstones of Cretaceous age at a depth of 229 feet in a drill 

hole at Wingayongo, near Kibiti, north Rufiji District. Barite is 

reported in carbonatites and occurs in concentrates from kimberlite pipes. 
AFRICA 31 

UGANDA 

A considerable tonnage of barite possibly may be recovered 

from hematite lenses in granitoid gneiss at Mugabuzi Hill, northwest Ankole, Uganda (Barnes, 1961, p. 61). The deposit lies only 

3 miles from the Kampala-Kasese railway. Barite also occurs in 

the phosphate-bearing soils associated with the Sukulu carbonatite and is a potential coproduct should the other minerals be 

mined. 

SOMALIA 

Pallister (1958, p. 158-159) listed three areas of barite occurrences in Somalia. From two of these, barite is likely to be only 

a coproduct with fluorite or base metals. In the third area, south 

of Berbera, in the Bihendula Range, barite fills fractures as much 

a.s 2 feet wide in gneiss. One vein containing 90 percent barite is 

exposed for 300 yards. Three other occur:2nces in the same 

region are listed at Dananjiehh, Gol Ebed, and Law. Reserves are 

probably small. 

NEAR EAST 

INDIA 

The total recorded barite production in India from 1918 to 1966 

is about 700,000 tons, of which 92 percent came from Andhra 

Pradesh, 7 percent from Raj as than, and the remainder from 

Madhya Pradesh, Kashmir, Vindhya Pradesh, and Manbhum, in 

Bihar (Brown and Dey, 1955, p. 448-452). Systematic geological 

investigations were carried on by Coulson (1933), who found that 

most of the occurrences either were replacements or were fissure 

veins in the Vempalle (Viampalli) Limestones or in the associated intrusive dolerite and basalt sills. The Vempalle limestones 

and slates are rocks of Precambrian age that form the upper 

part of the Papaghni Series of the Cuddapah System. Large 

quantities of barite are believed to be available in a vein at 

Kottapalle (lat 14°22' N., long 78°21'30" E.). Many localities are 

described by latitude and longitude in a report by Krishnan 

(1944). 

In Anantapur, the major deposits are in veins in limestone. 

Near Nerijamipalle one vein is 3 to 11 feet thick and extends for 

half a mile, and near Mutssukota the best vein is 100 yards long 

and as much as 30 feet wide. 

There are many deposits in the Kurnool district, the most 

important of which are in Dhone Taluk, in the vicinity of Balaplapalle (lat 15°27'30" N., long 78°6'30" E.). 
32 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

Barite also occurs near Naravada (lat 14°54' N., long 79°57' E.) 

and in other places in the Nell ore district of Andhra. Near 

Alangayam (lat 12°37'30" N., long 78°45' E.), veins with quartz 

and 30 percent barite in porphyritic gneiss are several feet thick 

and have been traced for 7 miles. 

The major deposits of Alwar, Rajasthan, at Bhakera (lat 27°32' 

N., long 76°36' E.), Sampuri, Bhagat Ka Bas, and Rampur, occur 

in fissure veins in members of the Alwar Quartzites (Precambrian 

age) of the Delhi System. 

Barite occurs in veins with copper minerals at Sleemanabad, 

Madhya Pradesh, in central India. In Bihar, barite occurs with ores 

of lead at Silwai and Bogebera in the Ranchi district and with rareearth silicate minerals near Malthole in the Manbhum district. 

In the Tikamgarh district of Vindhya Pradesh, gray barite form.s 

30-45 percent of veins as much as 2.5 ft thick that cut the Bundelkhand Gneiss. 

In the Kashmir, thin barite veins occur in the Great Limestone 

Formation of the Riasi district, especially near the J angalgali Pass 

and Kheri Kot. 

The catalog of deposits and occurrences offered in the references 

cited above is lengthy. Although detailed estimates of the barite 

reserves of India are incomplete, several million tons of barite 

probably is available there. Mineral Resources Development Series 

Report 27 (United Nations, 1967, p. 73) listed the inferred reserves 

of barite in India at about 800,000 tons. 

IRAN 

The barite industry of Iran began about 1959, when the closing 

of the Suez Canal cut off barite imports (Hooper, 1963). About 25 

barite deposits were known in Iran prior to 1959, but none supplied 

any of the 40,000 tons of barite needed anually for drilling mud. 

The mud requirements for each hole drilled in Iran are higher than 

in most other parts of the world. Reservoir pressures are so great 

that it is common to drill with mud weighing about 168 pounds per 

cubic foot. 

Most of the barite is white, although some is red from iron stains; 

it commonly occurs in relatively thin, structurally controlled veins. 

The most common host rocks are the volcanic tuffs of the Oligocene 

and Miocene green beds (Hooper, 1963, p. 437). 

Barite deposits have been explored chiefly near Tehran, Ghazoin, 

Saveh, and Ghom, where ore reserves of 400,000 tons containing 
NEAR EAST 33 

90 percent barite were listed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (United Nations, 1963, p. 39). 

The geological setting of the region suggests that this estimate is 

conservative. 

TURKEY 

Nine areas of barite deposits are scattered across Turkey, but 

the most important commercial deposits are in Mus Province, 

eastern Turkey (Kaaden, 1963). Most Turkish barite is hard 

crystalline material that occurs in veins along shear zones or in 

metasomatic replacement bodies in limestone. Most deposits seem 

to be small, except those near Mus. 

In the areas of Bilirkoy, Kizilkilise, and Kasorkoy, Mus Province, 

barite veins as much as 40 m wide occur in schists, of early Paleozoic age, that generally strike west and dip north. The strike of 

most veins coincides with that of the schists, but the dip of the 

veins commonly cuts the schistosity at an oblique angle. Some veins 

follow mineralized shear planes along the approximate boundary 

between rigid quartzites and more friable schists. Brecciated barite 

recemented by iron oxide and quartz indicates some postmineralization movement. Except for hematite, quartz, and secondary iron 

and manganese oxides, the veins are filled with barite. The ore has 

an average content of 94 percent BaS04 and less than 0.5 percent 

ferric oxide. Reserves of about 3 million tons are available there, 

only a few kilometers from a railroad. 

PAKISTAN 

The barite deposits of Pakistan are in the western part of the 

country, principally in the Hazara, Khuzdar, and Las Bela districts 

(Klinger and Abbas, 19,63). Vein deposits are most common; they 

are pod shaped, rarely more than 100 feet long, and are controlled 

by shear zones, faults, and tension fractures in the Hazara and Las 

Bela districts. Bedded replacement deposits in the Khuzdar and 

Las Bela districts follow sedimentary structures and have rather 

precise stratigraphic controls. These deposits are reported to be 

generally larger and more regular than the vein deposits. The 

bedded deposits at Gurga, Khuzdar district, consist of four principal lenses, each 270 to 1,200 feet long and 10 to 80 feet thick containing 80 to 90 percent BaS04. Adjacent beds have been altered extensively, especially by silicification, suggesting that the ore bodies 

originated by hydrothermal replacement of the host rocks (Klinger 

and Abbas, 1963, p. 422) . Reserves in these deposits alone are 

estimated at 1.4 million tons of barite. 
34 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

In most deposits, quartz and (or) calcite are the chief gangue 

minerals, but some galena, sulfides of iron and copper, and iron 

oxides are common. Periods of barite deposition range from Jurassic to Pleistocene, and the host rocks are Precambrian to Pleistocene 

in age. 

Geologic descriptions, as well as economic and reserves assessments, of nine deposits are supplied by Klinger and Abbas (1963). 

Reserves amount to about 1.6 million tons of barite. The total recorded barite production of Pakistan is only about 51,000 tons, 

most of which has been mined in the Hazara and Las Bela districts 

since 1957. 

BURMA 

The Northern Shan States and the Amherst, Mandalay, and 

Kyankse districts have minable barite deposits (Krishnan, 1944). 

The Azintuang Hill, about 15 miles south of Mitan (lat 16°0' N., 

long 98°24' E.) in the Amherst district, has many barite veins in 

limestone, and other deposits are known in this area along the 

Thailand border. At Bawdwin, in the Mandalay region, four parallel veins 1 to 3 feet thick were estimated to contain 20,000 tons of 

barite. In the Southern Shan States near Mawston (lat 20°57' N., 

long 98°50' E.), barite veins with quartz are common. Few details 

are known about the barite deposits of Burma. 

SAUDI ARABIA 

About 20 km N. 50° E. of Rabigh on the Red Sea coast 150 km 

north of Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, barite veins from a few centimeters 

to 3 m wide fill fractures in the Red Sea Rift System of Tertiary 

age (Brobst, 1966). The geology of the area is complex. The barite 

veins dip steeply, generally 60° or more, and pinch and swell along 

strike. The crystalline barite is white to pink and contains scattered 

crystals of galena and chalcopyrite and pods of dark-golden-brown 

jasperoid with black oxides of manganese. Most of the barite veins 

are clustered in an area of a few square kilometers, but the area of 

mineralization may be much more extensive. Reserves of 100,000 

tons of barite in the Rabigh area were listed by the U.S. Bureau of 

Mines (1960, Mineral trade notes v. 51, no. 4, p. 19). 

The deposits near Rabigh are not far inland from the deeps of 

the Red Sea, where hot mineralizing brines are now issuing from 

fractures (Delevaux and others, 1967). The Red Sea Rift System 

in Saudi Arabia and Africa seems to be an attractive target for 

further mineral exploration. 
FAR EAST 35 

OTHER AREAS 

Barite is being mined in Afghanistan for use in the local oil 

fields, but no information is available about the geology of the 

deposits. Production amounted to 3,900 tons in 1960, according to 

a report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and 

the Far East (United Nations, 1962, p. 19). The U.S. Bureau of 

Mines (1964, Mineral trade notes, v. 58, no. 4, p. 5) reported a 

discovery of barite veins in Jordan, near Jerusalem, and (1957, 

Mineral trade notes, v. 51, no. 4, p. 19') near Aqaba. The veins near 

Aqaba were not regarded as of commercial interest. 

FAR EAST 

CHINA (MAINLAND) 

Few new data on the barite deposits of China have become available since the U.S. Bureau of Mines' 1948 report on the mineral 

resources of China. Prior to World War II, the principal mines 

were in quartz-barite-galena veins cutting red sandstones of Cretaceous age in Shantung Province. Some of the deposits were reported 

(U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1948, Mineral resources of China, p. 122) 

to be "large," and ore from the veins at Hwa-shan was said to be 

98 percent barite. Estimated reserves of 7 million metric tons of 

barite were reported at Hsui-jen in the Hsiang district of Kwangsi 

Province. A deposit of high-grade barite with reserves of 1.2 

million tons to a depth of 80 m occurs at T'ang-shan, Hopeh Province. About 1 million tons of barite, 90 percent BaS04, occur in the 

deposits of Tung-shan, Lin-ch'uan district, Kiangsi Province. 

Barite production recorded from 1932 to 1942 was about 107,000 

tons, and from 1959 to 1967 it was estimated at about 850,000 tons. 

A substantial part of the reserves reported 20 years ago is probably 

still available. 

JAPAN 

Pollard (1951, p. 56-58) summarized the geology and economics 

of barite deposits in Japan. The few barite mines in Japan are on 

Hokkaido and Honshu. By the end of 1950 the Otaru Matsukura 

mine in Hokkaido had yielded 80 percent of the nation's total production from high-grade ore replacements in volcanic rocks of 

Tertiary age. The hydrothermal mineralization is late Miocene or 

early Pliocene (Sugimoto, 1962). Vein deposits of moderately high 

grade ore have been mined from pre-Cretaceous calcareous rocks at 

Mogari, Hokkaido, and from Paleozoic slate at Kasatori, Honshu. 

The gangue minerals in these veins consist of quartz, sphalerite, 
36 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

galena, and limonite. The third type of deposit occurring in Japan 

is the kuromono or kuroko ore, a black complex metal ore in which 

small amounts of barite are associated with sphalerite, chalcopyrite, 

pyrite, quartz, gypsum, and their oxidation products. Coproduct 

barite has been produced fron1 these ores at the Hanaoka copper 

mine in northern Honshu, where reserves were listed by Pollard 

(1951, p. 58) at 600,000 tons of barite, but resources of barite in 

these ores are considered to be vast. Mining operations in kuroko 

ore were recently described in Mining Engineering (1969). 

The barite reserves available in rock 45 percent or more BaS04 

from major deposits were posted by the Japan Geological Survey 

(1960, p. 215) to be 3.3 million tons. Mineral Resources Development Series Report 27 (United Nations, 1967, p. 89) states that 

as of April 1, 1963, reserves of ore (31 percent BaS04) in the 

ground contain 898,000 tons of barite, but that minable ore (25 

percent BaS04) contains 661,000 tons. 

DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA (NORTH KOREA) 

The barite deposits of the Korean peninsula were described by 

Gallagher (1963, p. 61-68). Most of the deposits are hydrothermal 

veins emplaced in siliceous host rocks. The veins contain barite, 

fluorite, and, in small amounts, iron, lead, zinc, and copper sulfides 

with or without quartz. The amounts of barite are believed to 

decrease with depth, but the amounts of fluorite apparently increase 

with depth. Some ore bodies formed by the replacement of limestone host rocks; these bodies tend to be larger and less contaminated by sulfides than the veins. Most of the large known 

deposits are in North Korea, where total recorded production 

reached the half-million-ton mark after 1961. Production during 

1967 exceeded 100,000 tons. Most of this has been exported to the 

Soviet Union. 

The largest known barite deposit in North Korea, the Changdo 

mine near Hakpang-ni (lat 38°29' N., long 127°43' E.), has barite 

and small quantities of sulfides in about 20 replacement bodies in 

magnesian limestone of the Great Limestone Series. The bodies are 

97 percent BaS04 and have a maximum width of 16m and a length 

of 50 m. Proved ore reserves of about 1 million tons were reported 

(Gallagher, 1963, p. 65) . 

In the Chaeryong-gang district, many barite deposits are known 

in the limestone, shale, and clay slate of the Masan-ni (Masanri) 

beds of the Middle Cambrian Choson system, and in the unconformably overlying succession of three units of porphyrite, breccia, 
FAR EAST 37 

conglomerate, sandstone, quartzite, tuffaceous shale, shale, and limestone in the Upper Taedong ( Daido) Formation of Late Cretaceous 

age. All these rocks were later intruded by dikes of porphyrite and 

quartz porphyry. The deposits in the Masanri beds are commonly 

lenticular or pocketlike, and those in porphyritic tuff beds are 

comparatively thick and have substantial reserves. Thin veins, only 

about 50 em thick, seem to have considerable continuity along both 

strike and dip. 

Gallagher listed 11 other barite deposits in North Korea. 

PHILIPPINES 

Little is known about barite deposits in the Philippines. The U.S. 

Bureau of Mines (1960, Mineral trade notes, v. 51, no. 4, p. 20) 

reported that small quantities of barite were mined from a single 

deposit at Lobo, Batangas Province, Luzon (lat 13 °39' N ., long 

121 °15' E.). The ore at Lobo contains copper and barite, and conservative estimates made in 1957 indicated 26,000 tons of recoverable barite and 60,000 tons of recoverable copper ore (4 percent Cu). 

REPUBLIC OF KOREA (SOUTH KOREA) 

Gallagher (1963, p. 68) stated that only two barite deposits were 

known in the Republic of Korea, but that barite occurred at many 

places. The Songhung mine in the Yongtap-ni area (lat 36°55.4' 

N., long 126°26.5' E.) was reported to be a fairly large body that 

replaced dolomite associated with quartzite and mica schist. The 

upper part of the body was 94 to 97 percent BaS04, but the grade 

diminished near the bottom. Nothing is known about the Samhwa 

(Sanwa) barite mine in Imdong-myon of Andong-gun, Kyongsangpukto. The source of the few tons of barite produced in South 

Korea in 1945-67 (table 4) is unknown. Mineral Resources Development Series Report 27 (United Nations, 1967, p. 94) estimated 

the barite reserves of South Korea at 3 million tons, but no geologic 

data or grades were given. 

THAILAND 

Two barite occurrences in northern Thailand, at Ban Hin Khao 

and Ban Tin Pha, are of geologic and economic interest. The deposit 

at Ban Hin Khao has an estimated reserve of 2.5 million tons of 

barite (Jacobson and others, 1969, p. 66-68). It lies on a northwesttrending ridge 7 km southeast of Ban That and has been geologically mapped and sampled. The barite forms a bedded replacement 

deposit in a sequence of limestone, dolomite, shale, and tuff of 
38 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

Devonian and Early Carboniferous age. The barite beds, massive 

and with varying amounts of dolomite, strike north to northwest 

and dip steeply east. The main deposit has a strike length of 1,200 

m, and two smaller deposits were noted to the west. Trenches 

, expose massive barite beds 1-9 m wide, but the average width is 1 5.2 m. The massive barite exposed in the trenches generally is 

flanked by soil containing barite boulders, so that the true width of 

the barite is difficult to determine. Barite has been observed at an 

elevation of 350 m at the south end of the ridge and at an elevation 

of 550 m on the hilltop. 

The geology of Ban Tin Pha prospect, about 1 km west of the 

village of the same name, is believed to be similar to that of the 

Ban Hin Khao deposit. The prospect is in an area of poorly exposed 

sandstone and shale of Devonian and Carboniferous age. Barite 

fragments are exposed in an area 0.5 km square; one exposure of 

bedrock 5 m wide and 30 m long is massive barite, 99.4 percent 

BaS04. Further prospecting is needed in this area. 

OCEANIA 

AUSTRALIA 

The barite deposits of Australia are listed and described by 

Gourlay (1965, p. 61-72). Total recorded barite production from 

vein and replacement deposits through 1967 is 280,'718 tons. Most 

of the barite has come from the Oraparinna and N oarlunga mines 

in South Australia, where about 50 deposits occur in the Flinders 

and Mount Lofty Ranges, but deposits and prospects are widely 

distributed throughout the country. 

The Oraparinna deposits (Nixon, 1962) consist of 73 lodes, 53 of 

which are considered to be workable, in steeply dipping tension 

fractures in sedimentary rocks of Cambrian and Precambrian 

(Marinoan and Sturtian) age. The veins of lode 1 are persistent 

for a vertical distance of 400 feet. The veins vary in width ; the 

maximum width is 30 feet, but the average is 8 feet. Reserves in 

the main vein are estimated at 340 tons per vertical foot (Nixon, 

1962, p. 15). 

Massive outcrops of barite occur at Bunbinyunna, described by 

Gourlay (1965, p. 67) as located in sec. 16, hundred of Moralana, 

which is between Elder's Range and the Wilpena Pound Range and 

about 20 miles north of Hawker, South Australia. Large tonnages 

of barite and associated hematite could be mined from opencuts, 

but no further information about the deposit was available in 1965. 

Several large low-grade deposits are known in the Olary district, 
OCEANIA 39 

South Australia. These deposits are all bedded replacements at the 

same stratigraphic level. Silica and iron oxides are the principal 

contaminants. Beneficiation by flotation methods is needed to yield 

a satisfactory commercial product. 

In Western Australia, econon1ic and potentially economic barite 

deposits occur in Precambrian rocks. A large tonnage of high-grade 

barite is reportedly available from veins near Cardup, 20 miles 

south-southeast of Perth. Large reserves of barite are reported at 

Breen's Carnp, about 24 miles west-northwest of Marble Bar in an 

area just northeast of the Hamersley Range, where development of 

iron deposits is in progress. 

Condon (1968, p. 64) described syngenetic barite in bentonitic 

siltstone and shale of the Gearle Siltstone of Early Cretaceous age 

in the Carnarvon Basin along the coast of Western Australia. A 

bed 1 foot thick containing loose crystals of barite 1 millimeter in 

diameter is exposed at two places 15 miles apart. No further 

geologic work on the extent and geochemistry of the bed was reported, but the geologic and economic implications are of considerable significance in the search for new resources of barite. 

Other deposits are known in the Northern Territory, Tasmania, 

Queensland,, Victoria, and New South Wales. In New South Wales, 

the Kempfield area, about 30 miles south-southwest of Bathurst, has 

yielded about 10 percent of Australia's total barite production from 

lenticular n1asses in schistose rocks about 1 mile from a granite 

mass. 

No barite reserve figures have been published for Australia, but 

geological data available in the literature suggest that reserves of 

5 million tons could certainly be termed a conservative estimate. 

NEW ZEALAND 

Veins of barite and fluorite in the Mount Arthur Marble of 

Ordovician age at Thomson Hill, Wangapeka Valley, Nelson, New 

Zealand, were studied by Braithwaite and Watters (1962). The 

vein and residual materials were likened to those of the deposits in 

the Sweetwater district, Tennessee, but the authors concluded that 

the deposits at Thomson Hill did not have enough barite to warrant 

commercial exploitation. 

FIJI 

Barite oceurs with metallic minerals in eastern and western Viti 

Levu and Vanua Levu (Houtz and Phillips, 1963). The largest 

deposit adjoins the Koroisa magnetite deposit. The several thousand 
40 BARITE : WORLD PRODUCTION, RESERVES, PROSPECTS 

tons of barite in fragments as much as 4 inches in diameter in the 

soil were derived from covered veins. Barite is reported in the 

Mount Kasi gold mine and is associated with copper and zinc 

minerals in the Wainaviti deposit of eastern Viti Levu, where 

mineralized limestone contains about 3 percent barite. Hydrothermal minerals in limestones in Fiji are of Miocene, Pliocene, 

and post-Pliocene age. The presence of commercial-grade barite is 

a possibility, according to Houtz and Phillips (1963, p. 19). 

CONCLUSIONS 

The 200 million tons of barite in the currently reported world 

reserves are only a 20-year supply, if the annual production rate 

continues to climb in the next 20 years as it did in the past 20. All 

the trends in use suggest that demands will continue to increase as 

industry strives to provide for the needs of an increasing world 

population that will be 6 billion by the year 2000. Requirements 

for drilling oil and gas wells alone insure a constantly increasing 

demand for barite. New deposits must, therefore, be sought and 

developed and resources converted to reserves, a process which can 

only take place slowly. 

Geologic factors suggest that world barite production can be 

increased in the coming years, and the possibilities for discovering 

new barite deposits throughout the world are favorable. Among the 

most worthy targets for search the world over are deposits of 

bedded barite similar to those in Arkansas and Nevada. Such 

deposits probably have not yet been seriously sought or recognized 

in many areas. These deposits tend to be large and are amenable to 

large-scale low-cost mining operations. The estimated barite reserves of 50 million tons in the bedded deposits of Arkansas and 

Nevada alone constitute about 25 percent of the world's known 

reserves. 

Vein deposits mined chiefly for barite are yielding major 

amounts of ore in many countries of the world, and substantial 

amounts will continue to be obtained from vein deposits of all sizes. 

Smaller deposits, however, will lose their economic significance in 

the more advanced stages of industrialization, as 'has already 

happened in the United States. The search will have to be pressed 

for larger deposits with great volumes of ore. 

An increasingly important source of barite may well be as a 

coproduct from the mining of iron, base-metal, fluorspar, and rareearth ores already known in many parts of the world. Larger 
CONCLUSIONS 41 

volumes of barite may also be recovered from mine dumps and 

tailings ponds, where barite is already partly ground and concentrated. 

Too few data are available to evaluate the possibilities of increasing the world's reserves of barite in residual deposits. Prospecting and assessing residual barite deposits are difficult. Despite 

the problems, much barite has been mined from residual deposits 

in the United States, where the deposits have been large, although 

of relatively low grade, and easy to mine by opencut methods. Ores 

from residual deposits generally can be beneficiated easily and 

inexpensivE~ly. 

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