GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CIRCULAR 555 

Bedded Barite in East 

Northumberland Canyon, 

Nye County, Nevada 

Bedded Barite in East 

Northumberland Canyon, 

Nye County, Nevada 

By D. R. Shawe, F. G. Poole, and D. A. Brobst 

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CIRCULAR 555 

Washington 1967 
United States Department of the Interior 

STEWART L. UDALL, Secretary 

Geological Survey 

William T. Pecora, Director 

First and second printings 1967 

Free on application to the U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C. 20242 
Bedded Barite in East Northumberland Canyon, 

Nye County, Nevada 

By D. R. Shawe, F. G. Poole, and D. A. Brobst 

ABSTRACT 

Bedded barite has been identified in the course of 

stratigraphic studies by the U.S. Geological Survey in 

and near East Northumberland Canyon, Toquima 

Range, Nye County, Nev. The barite beds are interlayered in black chert of probable Ordovician age. The 

barite rock is mostly dark gray and massive, has a 

specific gravity averaging about 4.0, and contains, by 

chemical analysis, 70.7 to 93.9 percent BaS04. 

INTRODUCTION 

Bedded barite has been identified by the U.S. Geological Survey in a new locality near East North umberland Canyon, Toquima Range, Nye County, Nev. The 

locality is in a barite province or belt extending generally northward through central Nevada (fig. 1). The 

province is characterized both by bedded barite associated with rocks of Ordovician and Devonian age and 

by vein barite associated with Tertiary igneous rocks. 

Data on many deposits in the province have been given 

by Horton ( 1963 ). 

The barite of the East Northumberland Canyon area 

is inter layered with dark chert of probable Ordovician 

age. It was identified by the first two authors of this 

report in June 1967 in the course of a regional study 

of stratigraphy and structure in south-central Nevada. 

The stratigraphic studies, an element of the U.S. Geological Survey's Heavy-Metals program, are aimedat 

clarifying facies distribution of Paleozoic rocks and 

their relations to the regional structural features 

which have localized metallic mineral belts in Nevada. 

STRATIGRAPHY OF THE BARITE-BEARING BEDS 

The barite beds occur in strata described and mapped by Kay and Crawford (1964, p. 436 and pl. 6) as 

undifferentiated Willow Canyon Formation and Pinecone Formation of Ordovician age (Kay and Crawford, 

1964). These rocks contain faunules equivalent in age 

to Chazyan, Bolarian, and Trentonian. According to 

Kay and Crawford (1964, p. 436), the Pinecone Formation consists of grayish-black argillitic siltstone and 

grayish-black chert with lesser amounts of calcareous 

siltstone, siliceous siltstone, sandstone, and conglomerate. We believe that rocks shown in the area of the 

barite beds in figure 2 are mostly Pinecone Formation. 

The sequence of rocks that includes the barite beds 

contains much dark-gray to black chert in thin, wavy 

and lensoid beds 1 and 3 inches thick. 

The barite occurs in three principal beds of varying 

thickness conformably interlayered with thin-bedded 

dark-gray chert. The barite beds range from S to 30 

feet in thickness, and one bed locally exceeds 50 feet. 

In the barite-bearing zone, chert beds total 50 to 200 

feet in thickness. Locally there are four barite beds 

but in some places only one to two beds. Inasmuch as 

several high- and low-angle faults of small displacement were recognized on the south side of East Northumberland Canyon, and minor tight folds of a few 

feet amplitude on the north side of the canyon, the 

variations in thickness and the discontinuity of beds 

may be attributed more to minor tectonic deformation rather than to original irregularities in deposition. 

CHARACTER OF THE BARITE BEDS 

The barite is medium to dark gray and mostly massive and dense and has an aphanitic to extremely fine 

grained sugary texture. Some of the barite beds have 

thin laminations one-sixteenth of an inch or more thick. 

Other layers are well bedded: some of these beds are 

1 to 6 inches thick and contain dark -gray to black 

rosettes of barite 1/16 to lj2 inch in diameter. Rare 

beds have the appearance of intraformational conglomerate and are made up of barite granules and 

small pebbles, barite rosettes, and sparse chert pebbles of probable detrital origin in an extremely fine 

grained barite matrix. We saw no chert or argillite 

layers within the barite beds. The barite beds generally consist of more than 50 percent massive barite and? lesser amount of thin layers of small spherulitic rosettes of barite. The top and bottom of each 

bed is marked by layers several inches thick of barite 

rosettes 1/4 to lf2 inch in diameter. 

A diagrammatic stratigraphic section of the baritebearing interval measured on the south side of East 

Northumberland Canyon, showing sample localities, 

is illustrated in figure 3. 

PROP ERTlES OF THE BARITE ROCK 

The three types of bedded barite rock (massive barite, rosette barite, and conglomeratic barite) are distinctive as seen in thin sections, yet they have similarities. Massive and rosette barite intergrade, pos-
sibly through an intermediate variety that appears in 

outcrop as laminated massive barite. Massive barite 

consists of a dense matted aggregate of feathery to 

finely bladed barite crystals and minute barite rosettes a few microns to 0.1 mm in size, containing a 

small amount of interstitial streaks and patches of 

dark opaque organic material. In some thin sections, 

faint laminations due to grading are evident. Rosette 

barite consists of less densely packed barite rosettes 

and some sheafs of barite crystals 0.1 mm to 1 em in 

diameter in a groundmass of extremely fine grained 

barite and several percent of interstitial patches and 

streaks of dark opaque organic material and clear 

silica. Rosettes are crudely sorted by size in different 

layers. Conglomeratic barite rock in thin section is 

similar in appearance to rosette barite, but it is 

coarser grained and contains rounded to angular fragments of barite, chert, and organic-rich material. 

Delicately ornamented spherical Radio 1 aria about 

0.1 mm in diameter occur rather commonly, but not in 

great abundance, both in the organic matter and in the 

barite. The Radiolaria generally are cores of barite 

rosettes. 

A few thin vein 1 e t s of barite no more than 1 mm 

thick, and sparser veinlets of silica of similar size, 

occur irregularly in all three types of barite rock. 

White to light-gray barite collected from old prospect pits about 5 miles northwest of the East Northumber land Canyon deposits appear granular in thin 

section, with few barite sheafs and no rosettes or 

organic material. This barite is traceable into darkgray barite interlayered with dark-gray thin-bedded 

chert in the Pinecone and Willow Canyon Formations 

undifferentiated (Kay and Crawford, 1964, pl. 6). We 

believe the light-colored barite was originally bedded 

barite and is recrystallized as a result of the intrusion of a nearby granitoid stock. 

Some physical and chemical properties of 19 samples 

of barite and associated rocks from the Northumberland 

Canyon area are summarized in the table. The specifie gravity of the massive barite ranges from 3. 73 to 

4.36, whereas that of the rosette and conglomeratic 

barite ranges from 3.64 to 3. 97. The Stewart and 

Pfister (1960, p. 5) curve relating specific gravity to 

barite content suggests that the massive barite contains about 63 to 95 percent barite and that the rosette and conglomeratic barite contains about 58 to 

75 percent barite. The chemical data in the table, however, suggest that the massive barite rock contains 

86.3 to 93.9 percent barite and that the rosette and conglomeratic barite rocks contain 70.7 to 93.5 percent 

barite. Comparison of the chemic a 1 and specificgravity data indicate differences in porosity of the 

samples as well as a general negative correlation 

between silica content and specific gravity. 

Chemical and X-ray-diffraction data summarized in 

the table indicate that silica as quartz is the principal 

impurity in the barite. The very small amounts of 

strontium, lime, carbon dioxide, alumina, and total 

iron are insufficient to form enough of other minerals 

2 

to show on the X-ray diffractograms. The strontium 

probably occurs in barite where it can substitute for 

barium in the crystal lattice. The lime probably occurs 

in combination with the carbon dioxide as very small 

amounts of calcite. Calcite was found only in the thin 

section and the X-ray diffractogram of sample DAB -8. 

All the lime in the analyses shown in the table cannot 

be accounted for as calcium carbonate because of insufficient carbon dioxide. The calcium, therefore, 

occurs in some other mineral, perhaps in limited substitution for barium or strontium in the barite. The 

iron probably occurs as minute particles of oxide or 

sulfide, although only a few grains of pyrite altering 

to reddish iron oxide were found in only one sample 

(DRS-2.5-67). The small amounts of alumina probably 

form minute amounts of clay. Discrete and definable 

clay minerals did not appear on the X-ray diffractograms. 

As judged by the samples studied, the barite of the 

East Northumberland Canyon area compares favorably in chemical and physical characteristics with 

bedded barite mined for well-drilling mud and chemical uses in other areas, especially in Nevada and 

Arkansas (Brobst, 1958, p. 81, p. 92-97; Brobst, 1960, 

p. 60-63). 

POTENTIAL RESOURCES 

The economic potential of the barite deposits of the 

East Northumberland Canyon area cannot be fully 

evaluated without physical exploration such as drilling 

or excavation. Geologic relations as described in this 

report suggest that the potential resources are large 

and that the area constitutes an attractive exploration 

target. Although the deposits are in a thrust fault 

plate (Kay and Crawford, 1964, pl. 6) that puts limits 

on their extent, the surface exposures suggest that 

the deposits may extend 10,000 feet along strike and 

that they may have an average total thickness of SO 

feet. Two measured sections and two estimated sections in the western part of the area of exposed barite on the south side of the canyon (fig. 2) show more 

than 50 feet average aggregate thickness of barite 

beds. The upper bed at the east end of the area on the 

south side of the canyon appears to be 30 to 40 feet 

thick, and three lower beds are each about 10 feet 

thick. In the southeastern part of the area of barite 

exposures on the north side of the canyon (fig. 2), 

the middle bed is estimated to be about 40 feet thick. 

and the upper and lower beds each estimated at least 

10 feet thick. From this area, these thicknesses appear to continue both to the northwest and to the northeast. Despite the fact that the barite deposits appear 

to be in a thrust plate of thePinecone Formation (Kay 

and Crawford, 1964, pl. 6), we believe that the plate 

is thick enough to suggest that the barite beds may 

extend at least 1,000 feet downdip. Dark -gray bedded 

barite also crops out in canyons as much as 4 miles 

north of the barite exposures shown in figure 2, as 

well as 5 miles to the northwest, but in these areas 

the barite beds seem to be thinner and more discontinuous than in the East Northumberland Canyon area, 

possibly because of tectonic deformation. 
oReno 

0 

I 50 

I 

o Ely 

O:C'1~...:Y~~~'---- East Northumberland 

Canyon barite deposits 

Figure 1.--:\lap of Nevada showing location of East Northumberland Canyon barite deposits and area 

of central Nevada barite province (lined) based on Horton {1963). 

3 
Topography from Tonopah 

1:250,000 quadrangle 0 V2 lMILE Geology modified from 

Kay and Crawford 

(1964, plate 6) CONTOUR INTERVAL 200 FEET 

EXPLANATION 

Alluvium 

Volcanic rocks 

Sedimentary rocks, 

undifferentiated 

C ..... · ····I 

·d 

u 

0 

N 

0 

z 

w 

u 

u 

0 

N 

0 

w 

..J 

Willow Canyon - Pinecone Sequence, ~ 

undifferentiated, of Kay and Crawford 

(1964). Dotted lines outline the interval 

containing bedded barite deposits 

Contact 

Dashed 1.ohere approximately located 

-------- Fault 

High- and low-angle. 

Dashed where uncertain 

____._£0 

Strike and dip of beds 

el 

Sample locality 

Figure 2.--GeneralJzed ,;eologic map of the East Northumberland Canyon area showmg 

location of bedded-barite deposits. 

38°55' 
l 

r 

Upper barite bed { 

J 

X 

X 

== 1--

I 

Middle barite bed { IX 

FEET 150 

J 

X 

) 

X 

X 

0 

X 

Lov,er barite bed 

X 

X 

X 

X 

} 

X 

} 

Thin-bedded cheYt 

DAB-6, massive barite 

DRS-24-67, rosette barite 

Thin-bedded chert, some thin layers and nodules of barite 

Cherty barite 

DAB-5, massive barite 

Thin-bedded chert, sparse thin layers and nodules of bante 

DRS-23-67, thin-bedded chert, some 1/4 -1/2 inch barite nodules 

Thin-bedded chert 

DRS-25-67, rosette barite 

DAB-4, massive sugary barite 

DRS-26-67, mass1ve barite 

DAB-3, massive barite 

DAB-2, rosette barite 

DRS-27-67, massive barite 

DAB-1, laminated barite 

Thin-bedded chert, some barite nodules and layers 

DRS-107-67, thin-bedded chert 

Thin-bedded chert 

Figure 3.--Diagrammatic stratigraphic section of the barite-bearing zone, south side of East Northumberland Canyon, showing sample localities. Position of section shown on figure 2 as sample 

locality 1. 
Properties of barite and associated rocks fr 

[Analysts, all u!' U.S. Geological Survey: J.D. Tucker for specific gravity; D. A. Brobst and J.D. Tucker for 

W. Mountjoy and 0. M. Parker for Fe2o3 , Sr, 

Massive 

barite. 

Rosette 

barite. 

Conglomeratic 

barite. 

Recrystallized 

barite. 

Barite, 

crystal. 

Cherty 

rocks. 

Lab. riG. 

D 129268 

D 12926~-t 

D 129272 

D 129273 

D 129274 

D 129275 

D 129266 

D 129267 

D 129271 

D 129270 

D 129264 

D 129265 

Field No. 

DRS-26-67 

DRS-27-67 

DAB-1 

DAB-3 

DAB-4 

DAB-5 

DAB-6 

DAB-8 

DAB-9 

DRS-24A-67 

DRS-24B-67 

DRS-25-67 

DAB-2 

DRS-110-67 

67-FR-45 

67-FP-46 

DRS-28-67 

DRS-23-67 

DRS-107-67 

From thin section and x-ray study. 

L•Jcat ion 

LGc. 1, figs. 2 

an1 3. 

-------do------

-------do------

-------do------

-------do------

-------do------

-------do------

Loc. 2, fig. 2 

Loc. 3, fig. 2 

Loc. 1, figs. 2 

ond 3. 

-------do------

-------do------

-------do------

Loc. 4, fig. 2 

5 miles northwest 

of East ·Northumberland Canyon 

deposits. 

-------do--------

Northumberland 

mine, head of 

East Northumberland Canyon. 

Loc. 1, figs. 2 

and 3. 

-------do------

Specific 

gravity 

4.14 

4.38 

4.23 

3.79 

3.73 4.10 

4.18 

4.14 

4.36 

3.94 

3.72 

3.64 

3.91 3. 79 

3.97 

3.71 

4.18 

4.50 

2.84 

2.57 

1/ 

3/ Calculated from specific gravity, assuming only chert impurity with 

specific gravity 2.57, and pure barite specific gravity 4.50. 

6 

Barite, 2 BaSO!• 

Minera1ogy1 

Barite, major; 

quartz, minor. 

------do-------

------do-------

------do-------

------do-------

------do-------

Barite, major; 

quartz, minor; 

some Radiolaria. 

Barite, major; 

quartz, minor; 

calcite, trace. 

Barite, major; 

quartz, minor. 

95 

88 

66 

63 ·31 

85 

83 

93 

Barite, major; 62 

quartz, minor. 

Barite, major; 58 

quartz, minor; 

some Radiolaria. 

Barite, major; 7~ 56 

quartz, minor; 

pyrite, trace. 

Barite, major; 75 

quartz, minor; 

some Radiolaria. 

Barite, major; 

quartz, mlr:;,·,r; 

chert pebb1e.o, 

Radiolaria. 

Barite, major; 

quartz, minor. 

------do-------

Barite---------

Chert, major; 

barite, minor; 

clay, trace. 

Chert, major; 

apatite, minor; 

clay, trace. 

62 

64 

100 

13 

0 

in 

perQ_e 

87.1 

86.3 

93.0 

91.9 

87.1 

93.7 

86.9 

70.7 

93.5 

77.9 

79.2 
·~he vicinity of East Northumberland Canyon 

:'-ray diffractometry; v. E. Shaw for Ba and S; I. C. Frost and J. A. Thomas for total C and co2; 

and Al2o

3 •'l.nd CaO; and W. D. Goss for Si02 ] 

Chemical analyses in percent 

Total Total Fe 

Ba 804 _c_ as Fe2o3 Sr SiO 

_2. cao C02 

51.3 38.81 3.48 0.17 O.ll 9.2 0.59 0.06 

50.8 38.56 .54 .37 .088 10.5 .29 .05 

54.7 40.37 1.66 .04 .046 5.5 .22 .07 

54.1 39.88 3.08 .05 .070 6.3 .10 .07 

51.3 36.83 3.32 .05 .041 9.8 .07 .03 

55.3 40.70 4.12 .06 .15 2.4 1.28 l. 72 

51.2 39.30 .43 .06 .094 11.0 .11 .04 

41.6 30.99 .51 .34 .020 25.8 1.40 .03 

48.8 36.69 l.ll .08 .058 15.8 .24 <.Ol 

55.1 39.55 l. 77 .06 .073 3.8 .21 .05 

45.8 33.71 .10 .05 .014 19.9 .34 .14 

46.6 37.58 .12 .19 .042 19.3 .33 <.Ol 

3/ Calculated from chemical analyses for Ba. ~/ Total is sum of BaS04 calculated from Ba, total C, total Fe as Fe203, Sr, 

Sio2, CaO, and Al2o3 and is given only to show approximate chemical 

balance. 

7 

Al2o3 

O.Oll 

.03 

.05 

.006 

.016 

.oo6 

.006 

.016 

.009 

.007 

.007 

.oo8 

Total4 

100.7 

98.1 

100.5 

101.5 

100.4 

101.9 

98.6 

98.8 

100.3 

99.4 

98.3 

99.2 
The demonstrated reserves of barite ore in the 

United States exploitable under current technological 

and economic conditions were placed by Brobst ( 1958, 

p. 120) at about 285 million tons of ore containing 46 

million tons of barite. If the barite in the East Northumberland Canyon area should prove upon exploration 

to be of the extent and quality that geologic indications 

suggest, it would add appreciably to domestic reserves. 

Through the last decade, the domestic barite industry 

has been producing at the rate of about 1 million tons 

of barite a year. About 600,000 tons, with a value of 

about $10 million, is imported annually. About 90percent of the consumption is used in oil-well drilling 

mud, and 10 percent is used in the preparation of barium chemicals and in many other industrial uses. The 

East Northumberland Canyon barite appears to be of a 

quality suitable for either the chemical or the drillingmud trade. 

GEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATIONS 

The origin of bedded barite deposits is not we 11 

understood, but textural, structural, and paleontological features of the barite beds in EastNorthumberland 

Canyon suggest that the barite was deposited early in 

the history of the rocks. The radiolarian nuclei from 

which blades of barite radiate to form rosettes implies 

first that space for crystal growth was available and, 

hence, that the beds were not compacted and second 

implies that replacement was not instrumental_ in form:ttion of the barite crystals. The intraformational 

barite conglomerate with its detrital chert fragments 

and subrounded to angular fragments of barite in a 

matrix of fine-grained barite implies erosion and redeposition of previously deposited barite in an active 

marine environ_ment during the time of the deposition of 

the Pinecone Formation. The streaks and patches of 

organic matter interstitial to the barite appear to be of 

primary origin. Their presence suggests that the rocks 

INTERIOR-GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. WASHINGTON D C -1967 

8 

have not been subjected either to particularly hot or 

to particularly alkaline or acidic solutions. Submarine 

springs could have been a source of barium and silica 

in a marine environment. The barium sulfate and silica 

might have been precipitated either by marine organisms or by direct chemical reactions. 

The occurrence of barite- and silica-rich facies in 

Ordovician rocks in the Toquima Range, as well as in 

the southern Shoshone Range and the Osgood Mountains, 

Nev. (fig. 1) suggests that these rocks constitute a 

significant sedimentary facies in the eugeosynclinal 

Paleozoic rocks of the Antler orogenic belt described 

by Roberts and others (1958) in the Great Basin. An 

examination of these Paleozoic rocks may lead to further discoveries of bedded barite deposits. The tectonic thicknening and thinning of the baritic rocks, and 

their tectonic transport, may also contribute to the 

understanding of structural deformation in the region. 

REFERENCES CITED 

Brobst, D. A., 1958, Barite resources of the United 

States: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1072-B, p. 67-130. 

--- 1960, Barium minerals, chap. 3, p. 55-64, in 

Industrial minerals and rocks, J. L. Gillson, ed.: 

Am. Inst. Mining Metall. Engineers, New York. 

Horton, R. C., 1963, An inventory of barite occurrences 

in Nevada: Nevada Bureau of Mines, Rept. 4, 18 p. 

Kay, Marshall, and Crawford, J. P .. 1964, Paleozoic 

facies from the miogeosynclinal to eugeosynclinal 

belt in thrust slices, central Nevada: Geol. Soc. 

America BulL. v. 75, p. 425-454. 

Roberts, R. J., Hotz. P. E., Gilluly, James, and Ferguson, H. G., 1958, Paleozoic rocks of northcentral Nevada: An1. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists 

Bull., v. 42, no. 12, p. 2813-2857. 

Stewart, L. A., and Pfister, A. J., 1960, Barite deposits 

of Arizona: U.S. Bur. Mines, Rept. Inv. 5651, 89p. 

U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1967 0- 275-377