BARITE(POWDER)

Listing description

Baryte, or barite, (BaSO₄) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate.^[2] The baryte group consists of baryte, celestine, anglesite and anhydrite. Baryte itself is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of barium. Baryte and celestine form a solid solution (Ba,Sr)SO₄.

Detailed description

The name baryte is derived from the Greek word βαρύς (heavy). The American spelling barite^[2] is used by USGS ^[7] and more often used in modern Scientific journals including those published by the Netherlands-based Elsevier journals. The International Mineralogical Association adopted "barite" as the official spelling when it formed in 1959^{[citation needed]}, but recommended adopting the older "baryte" spelling in 1978,^[8] notably ignored by the Mineralogical Society of America. The American Petroleum Institute specification API 13/ISO 13500 which governs baryte for drilling purposes does not refer to any specific mineral, but rather a material that meets that specification, in practice this is usually the mineral baryte.

The term "primary baryte" refers to the first marketable product, which includes crude baryte (run of mine) and the products of simple beneficiation methods, such as washing, jigging, heavy media separation, tabling, flotation, and magnetic separation. Most crude baryte requires some upgrading to minimum purity or density. Baryte that is used as an aggregate in a "heavy" cement is crushed and screened to a uniform size. Most baryte is ground to a small, uniform size before it is used as a filler or extender, an addition to industrial products, or a weighting agent in petroleum well drilling mud.

Other names

Baryte has gone by other names such as barytine,^[8] barytite,^[8] schwerspath,^[8] barytes,^[2] Heavy Spar,^[2] or tiff.^[3]

Mineral associations and locations

Baryte occurs in a large number of depositional environments, and is deposited through a large number of processes including biogenic, hydrothermal, and evaporation, among others.^[1] Baryte commonly occurs in lead-zinc veins in limestones, in hot spring deposits, and with hematite ore. It is often associated with the minerals anglesite and celestine. It has also been identified in meteorites.^[9]

In the USA, baryte has been found at locations in Cheshire, Connecticut, De Kalb, New York, Fort Wallace, New Mexico, and is quarried in Arkansas, Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Nevada, and Missouri.^[2] Localities outside the USA include Baia Sprie, Romania, Westmoreland, Cornwall, Cumberland, Derbyshire, Durham, Muirshiel (where zinc was also retracted), Perthshire, Argyllshire and Surrey in the UK,^[2] China, India, Morocco, Peru, Chile, Liberia, Turkey, Ireland (where it was actively mined on Benbulben^[10]), Canada, Iran,^[11] Brazil, Greece, and Barberton Mountain Land, South Africa.^[12]

Uses

Some 77% worldwide is used as a weighting agent for drilling fluids in oil and gas exploration. Other uses are in added-value applications which include the car, electronics, TV screen, rubber, and glass ceramics and paint industry, radiation shielding and medical applications (for example, a barium meal before a contrast CAT scan). Baryte is supplied in a variety of forms and the price depends on the amount of processing; filler applications commanding higher prices following intense physical processing by grinding and micronising, and there are further premiums for whiteness and brightness and color. Baryte is used in the manufacture of paints and paper.^[7]

Historically baryte was used for the production of barium hydroxide for sugar refining, and as a white pigment for textiles, paper, and paint.^[2]

Although baryte contains a "heavy" metal (barium), it is not considered to be a toxic chemical by most governments because of its extreme insolubility.

Paleothermometry

In the deep ocean, away from continental sources of sediment, pelagic baryte crystallizes out and forms a significant amount of the sediments. Since baryte has oxygen, systematics in the δ¹⁸O of these sediments have been used to help constrain paleotemperatures for oceanic crust. Similarly the variations in sulfur isotopes are also being exploited.^[13]

Barium (pronounced /ˈbɛəriəm/, BAIR-ee-əm) is a chemical element. It has the symbol Ba, atomic number 56, and is the fifth element in Group 2. Barium is a soft silvery metallic alkaline earth metal. It is never found in nature in its pure form due to its reactivity with air. Its oxide is historically known as baryta but it reacts with water and carbon dioxide and is not found as a mineral. The most common naturally occurring minerals are the very insoluble barium sulfate, BaSO₄ (barite), and barium carbonate, BaCO₃ (witherite). Barium's name originates from Greek barys (βαρύς), meaning "heavy", describing the high density of some common barium-containing ores.
Barium has few industrial uses, but the metal has been historically used to scavenge air in vacuum tubes. Barium compounds impart a green color to flames and have been used in fireworks. Barium sulfate is used for its density, insolubility, and X-ray opacity. It is used as an insoluble heavy mud-like paste when drilling oil wells, and in purer form, as an X-ray radiocontrast agent for imaging the human gastrointestinal tract. Soluble barium compounds are poisonous due to release of the soluble barium ion, and have been used as rodenticides. New uses for barium continue to be sought. For example, it is a component of some "high temperature" YBCO superconductors.

Characteristics

Physical properties

Barium is a soft and ductile metal. Its simple compounds are notable for their relatively high (for an alkaline earth element) specific gravity. This is true of the most common barium-bearing mineral, its sulfate barite BaSO₄, also called 'heavy spar' due to the high density (4.5 g/cm³).

Occurrence

The abundance of barium is 0.0425 % in the Earth's crust and 13 µg/L in sea water. It occurs in the minerals barite (as the sulfate) and witherite (as the carbonate).^[1] A rare gem containing barium is known, called benitoite. Large deposits of barite are found in China, Germany, India, Morocco, and in the US.^[3]

Production

Because barium quickly oxidizes in air, it is difficult to obtain the free metal and it is never found free in nature. The metal is primarily found in, and extracted from, barite. Because barite is so insoluble, it cannot be used directly for the preparation of other barium compounds, or barium metal. Instead, the ore is heated with carbon to reduce it to barium sulfide:

Compounds

Ba²⁺ is the dominant oxidation state throughout the chemistry of barium. Its properties generally resemble those of other alkaline earth ions such as strontium and calcium. All halides and pseudohalides, and chalcogenides are known, usually as colourless solids. The sulfate is famously insoluble. BaO forms a peroxide when heated in air. The oxide is basic and reacts with acids to give salts. Barium reduces oxides, chlorides and sulfides of less active metals. For example:

Ba + CdO → BaO + Cd

Ba + ZnCl₂ → BaCl₂ + Zn

3 Ba + Al₂S₃ → 3 BaS + 2 Al

At elevated temperatures, barium combines with nitrogen and hydrogen to produce the nitride Ba₃N₂ and hydride BaH₂, respectively. When heated with nitrogen and carbon, it forms the cyanide:

Ba + N₂ + 2 C → Ba(CN)₂

History

Barium's name originates from Greek βαρύς barys, meaning "heavy", describing the density of some common barium-containing ores. Alchemists in the early Middle Ages knew about some barium minerals. Smooth pebble-like stones of mineral barite found in Bologna, Italy were known as "Bologna stones". The fact that after exposed to light, they would glow for years, attracted witches and alchemists to them.
Carl Scheele identified barite as containing a new element in 1774, but could not isolate barium. Oxidized barium was at first called barote,

Applications

The dominating application of elemental barium is as a scavenger or “getter” removing the last traces of oxygen and other gases in electronic vacuum tubes such as television cathode ray tubes.
An alloy of barium with nickel is used in spark plug wire.

Applications of barium compounds

Barium sulfate (the mineral barite, BaSO₄) is important to the petroleum industry, e.g. as drilling mud, a weighting agent in drilling new oil wells. It is also a filler in a variety of products such as rubber. Taking advantage of its opacity to X-rays, the sulfate is used as a radiocontrast agent for X-ray imaging of the digestive system ("barium meals" and "barium enemas"). Lithopone, a pigment that contains barium sulfate and zinc sulfide, is a permanent white that has good covering power, and does not darken when exposed to sulfides Barium fluoride is used for optics in infrared applications, since it is transparent from about 0.15 to 12 microns.

Precautions

Soluble barium compounds are poisonous. At low doses, barium acts as a muscle stimulant, whereas higher doses affect the nervous system, causing cardiac irregularities, tremors, weakness, anxiety, dyspnea and paralysis. This may be due to its ability to block potassium ion channels which are critical to the proper function of the nervous system. However, individual responses to barium salts vary widely, with some being able to handle barium nitrate casually without problems, and others becoming ill from working with it in small quantities. Barium acetate was used by Marie Robards to poison her father in Texas in 1993. She was tried and convicted in 1996.

Non-toxicity of barium sulfate

Because it is highly insoluble in water as well as stomach acids, barium sulfate can be taken orally. It is eliminated completely from the digestive tract. Unlike other heavy metals, barium does not bioaccumulate. However, inhaled dust containing barium compounds can accumulate in the lungs, causing a benign condition called baritosis.

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$200/MT OR $0.09/IB

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