Barite is a mineral with a hardness of 3 out of 10 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness [?]. These Orthorhombicly structured gems are made of barium sulfate, their full chemical compound being BaSO4.

Barite also called Baryte or heavy spar is a clear to yellowish to blue mineral that is very soft and not well suited for making of gemstones. (Its a 3 on the harness scale). Its found near lead-zinc mines within limestone deposits.

All in all a nice item for a collector, but in terms of long term jewelry this is not a very suitable gem for rings, and necklaces as it will break and shear apart when contacting harder surfaces.

The specific gravity [?] for Barite is 4.45, it's refractive index [?] is 1.63-1.65, and it's double refraction [?] is 0.012.

History

Has been used for drilling fluids. Please read below.

Industrial Usages

Barite is very useful in terms of its ability to prevent blowouts by acting as a weighting agent for drilling fluids. Barite / Heavy spar is used in larger quantities in terms of percentages the further down you drill

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Sphalerite: Sphalerite is a zinc iron sulfide mineral formed in an isometric system. It is trimorphous with wurtzite and matraite. All three have the same chemical compound but crystallize in three different forms. The most common crystal forms of sphalerite are in dodecahedrons and tetrahedrons, elegant three-sided formations, often twinned, and otherwise usually massive, thus looking like brownish-black or (read full)

Tags

bariteyellowwhitebaryteheavy sparclearbariumsulfatesulfurdrillingoilgasdrilling fluidweighting agen

Terms

Double Refraction or dr is the ability of a mineral to separate a refracted ray of light into 2 rays. If held over an image or text it will display the object 2x its original size.

Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness is the standard used to categorize a mineral's ability to resist scratching. It gets its name from Friedrich Mohs, the German geologist who first created the scale.

RI or Refractive Index defines light's ability to move through the mineral or in a general sense, any material.

SG or Specific Gravity is the ratio of the weight of any substance to that of pure water at temperature of 3.98°C(39.2°F) and standard atmospheric pressure. This is important to note when actively seeking these minerals in the wild. Minerals with a higher SG will settle below material with a lower sg over time.