World barite

Table 3. World Barite Production, Reserves, and Reserve Base, 10 t ...

Barite, predominately BaSO, meets the overall requirements for weighting material better than other materials and is used for increasing the density of drilling fluids throughout the world. Commercial barite has a lower specific gravity than pure barium sulfate owing to the presence of associated minerals, such as silica. Barite is virtually insoluble in water and does not react with other mud constituents. Most operators prefer barite that meets API specifications (Table 2) (23). The barite content in mud depends on the desired density but can be as high as 2000 kg/km (700 lb/bbl). 

Production and Consumption. About 80% of the world s barite production is used as a weighting agent for the muds ckculated in rotary drilling of oil and gas wells (see PETROLEUM, DRILLING FLUIDS AND OTHER OIL RECOVERY CHEMICALS). Table 2 shows the U.S. production—consumption balance. The 1988 demand for barite increased nearly 40% over that recorded in 1987. However, by the end of 1988, oil prices had declined and renewed economic uncertainties depressed exploration and development activity. Barite demand fell accordingly and imports of lower cost foreign product exceeded domestic production. 

A U.S. Bureau of Mines survey covering 202 froth flotation plants in the United States showed that 198 million tons of material were treated by flotation in 1960 to recover 20 million tons of concentrates which contained approximately 1 billion in recoverable products. Most of the worlds copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, and nickel are produced from ores that are concentrated first by flotation. In addition, flotation is commonly used for the recoveiy of fine coal and for the concentration of a wide range of mineral commodities including fluorspar, barite, glass sand, iron oxide, pyrite, manganese ore, clay, feldspar, mica, sponumene, bastnaesite, calcite, garnet, kyanite, and talc. 

Barite occurs in abundance in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, and Tennessee as well as in Canada and Mexico. This substance was produced at 38 mines in seven U.S. states in 1973. Total U.S. production for 1973 was 1,104,000 tons, a figure which represented 23% of world production. Nevada supplied 50% of this total with Missouri ranking second in domestic production of barite ore. Domestic production levels for 1969 were much lower at 603,000 tons (Davis 1972). A list of barium production and processing facilities in the United States along with the production or processing volume for each are provided in Table 4-1. 

Monnin C., Jeandel C., Cattaldo T., and Dehairs F. (1999) The marine barite saturation state of the world s oceans. Mar. Chem. 65, 253 -261. 

The most common sources of barium are barite and witherite. Witherite is an ore containing barium carbonate (BaC03). In 2008, the world s major sources of barite were China, India, the United States, Morocco, Iran, Mexico, and Turkey. Most of the barite processed in the United States came from Nevada and Georgia. 

The most important barium mineral is heavy spar (BaS04, barite), whose deposits are distributed over the whole world. Worldwide extraction in over 30 countries was 4.4 10 t/a in 1995, of which 1.5 (O t/a was produced in China, 0.58 10 t/a in India and 0.54 lO t in the USA. In the Federal Republic of Germany the production of marketable raw heavy spar and the quantity of processed heavy spar were together 0.15 I O t/a in 1995. The worldwide production peaked in 1981 at 8.3 10 t/a, which is about double the 1995 production of 4.4 10 t/a. This decline was mainly due to less exploration and drilling. The worldwide reserves of heavy spar have been estimated to be ca. 1.8- 10 t, of which 0.17 10 t are certain. 

Both strontium and barium are found on Earth in layers of sedimentary rock as a result of eons of the elements precipitation out of seawater to the ocean floors. Barite (BaS04), a soft but remarkably heavy inert and insoluble mineral, is mined throughout the world, mainly for use in oil and gas fields. In order to avoid gushers (the explosive... 

Barite (or barytes) is the mineral form of BaS04. World production in 2005 was 7600Mt, with China supplying over half this total. The major use of barite is as a weighting material in oil- and gas-weU drilling fluids. On a much... 

Radioactive wastes from the central area contain signatures characteristic of both the northern and southern sectors of the North Sea fields. Individual samples differ in the relative proportion of barite-celestite, lead/litharge or galena (PbS), if conditions are highly reducing. This accounts for the activities of the radium isotopes and Pb, respectively. The above phases are foimd in other oil and gas facilities elsewhere in the world ". ... 

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