76 



UNITED STATES MINERAL RESOURCES 



waste of oil and gas resources and environmental 

 pollution, as well as conserving the natural pressure 

 for greater production and rate of recovery of the 

 products in the reservoir rocks. Barite is particu- 

 larly well suited for drilling mud because it is soft, 

 heavy, chemically inert, and available in sufficient 

 quantity at competitive prices throughout much of 

 the world. Many heavy materials tried as substi- 

 tutes for barite in drilling mud have been rejected 

 simply because of excessive initial cost, because they 

 react chemically in the system, or because they 

 abrade pipes, pumps, and hole walls resulting in 

 increased drilling costs. 



The remaining 20 percent of barite consumed 

 annually in the United States goes chiefly into the 

 manufacture of glass to add brilliance and clarity; 

 into the wares of the paint and rubber industry 

 principally as a pigment and filler; and into the 

 chemical industry for the preparation of barium 

 compounds. Barite is a common industrial filler, ex- 

 tender, and weighting agent. A survey of the uses 

 of barium chemicals by the Food Machinery and 

 Chemical Corp. (1961) listed more than 2,000 spe- 

 cific industrial applications in 17 major classifica- 

 tions. Among the newer developments are the use 

 of barium titanate ceramics in the electronics in- 

 dustry and of barium ferrate ceramics in perma- 

 nent magnets. Barite, a good absorber of gamma 

 radiations, has been used as an aggregate in con- 

 crete for shielding in atomic reactors, thereby re- 

 ducing the amount of more expensive lead shielding 

 otherwise needed. 



With energy requirements rising in the United 

 States and throughout the world, there is every 

 reason to believe that demand for mud-grade barite 

 (92-94 percent BaSOi) will continue at high levels, 

 and even increase, as the search for oil and gas con- 

 tinues. Not only will more wells be drilled, but they 

 will be deeper and they will extend into high- 

 pressure reservoirs requiring the use of more barite 

 as the potential for blowouts and mud leakage in- 

 creases. Other industrial uses of barite are sure to 

 continue at accelerated rates as the population 

 grows, as new nations industrialize, and as econo- 

 mies expand in the older industrial nations. Further 

 information on uses, material specifications, eco- 

 nomics, production, and outlook for future demand 

 of barite has been given recently by Brobst (1970) 

 and Lewis (1970). 



As the decade of the 1960's closed, nearly 1 mil- 

 lion tons of barite was produced annually in the 

 United States, chiefly in Missouri, Arkansas, Ne- 

 vada, Georgia, and Tennessee. Another half million 

 tons was imported annually from various countries, 



especially Canada, Mexico, Peru, Ireland, Greece, 

 Yugoslavia, and Morocco. Current knowledge of the 

 widely distributed domestic reserves of barite sug- 

 gests that the United States could be self-suificient 

 in barite for some years, even at moderately increas- 

 ing rates of consumption (Brobst, 1970, p. 11-12). 



EXPLOITATION 



Commercial demand for barite began about mid- 

 19th century when the United States and the na- 

 tions of western Europe began to industrialize. 

 Estimates of the world's barite production compiled 

 from various sources are shown in table 12. Nearly 



Table 12. — Barite, world production and U.S. production and 

 imports, in millions of short tons, 1850-71. 



[Compiled from U.S. Bur. Mines data and many other sources] 



World U.S. U.S. 



production production imports 



1850-1914 '6.5 1.2 0.2 



1915-18 1.2 .7 =0 



1919-44 16.7 7.1 .9 



1945-71 67.5 23.5 12.5 



Total 91.9 32.5 13.6 



^ Author's estimate: few foreign production data available. 

 2 2,500 short tons imported during this period. 



75 percent of the total world's barite production of 

 nearly 92 million tons has been mined since 1945, 

 and the United States has consumed 46 million tons 

 (about half) of this amount. 



Figure 10 shows world production, U.S. produc- 

 tion, and U.S. consumption (production plus im- 

 ports) from 1919 to 1971. The three curves are 

 almost parallel until 1959, after which barite con- 

 sumption outside of the United States increased 

 sharply because of an expanding world need for 

 mud-grade barite. The peak between 1925 and 1930 

 coincides with the period when barite was first used 

 for drilling mud. 



From 1838 to 1971, the residual deposits of the 

 United States have yielded about 17 million tons of 

 barite, the bedded deposits about 11.5 million tons, 

 and the vein deposits about 4 million tons. Before 

 1940, most of the U.S. barite production came from 

 residual deposits, chiefly in Missouri, Tennessee, 

 and Georgia. After 1940, the black bedded barite 

 deposits of Arkansas came into production and 

 within a few years the barite produced rivaled, and 

 in some years exceeded, that of the great residual 

 deposits of Missouri. The bedded deposits of Nevada 

 have been worked since early in the 20th Century 

 at rates that since 1960 have increased almost 

 annually. 



