Barite is a barium sulfate sand mineral. Its chemical composition often contains strontium, calcium and lead. したがって, there are strontium barite, lead barite and other qualitative variants. Barite belongs to the orthorhombic crystal system. The crystals are in the form of thick plates, common granular, massive, nodular, fibrous clusters and clusters. Barite has glass luster to rosin luster, transparent to translucent, hardness It is 3.0~35. Its colors are white, light gray, light yellow, yellowish brown, 青, green and light red, with white streaks. The pure is colorless, and the colored barite crystal has weak dichroism. Barite is difficult to melt, and it will appear yellow-green flame when burned on the flame, and it is insoluble in acid.
In barite, pure and transparent crystals can be processed and polished into faceted gems. Just because barite has low hardness and developed cleavage, it is easy to wear when making jewelry, so it is often used as a collection gem. Complete barite crystal clusters are good ornamental stones. There is also a brown variant of barite, which has a concentric structure in cross section and can also be used as an ornamental stone after polishing. Barite can be distinguished from similar gems such as lapis lazuli and feldspar with the characteristics of low hardness, high specific gravity, and high refractive index. 加えて, barite is the main barium-containing mineral. It is an important mineral raw material for barium extraction. It can be ground into fine powder and used as a weighting agent for drilling mud. It can also be used to make chemicals and white pigments.
Barite is produced in low-temperature hydrothermal deposits, co-existing with calcite, 石英, galena, pyrite and other minerals. It is also found in sedimentary deposits, and a few are also produced in igneous geodes. The main producing areas of barite in the world are the United States, Canada, Britain, フランス, Germany, Spain and other countries. High-quality brown barite crystals are produced in South Dakota, USA and British Columbia, Canada, and high-quality blue barite crystals are produced in Colorado, アメリカ合衆国. As a gem, barite treasures are rare. According to relevant information, Britain once produced a gem-grade barite weighing more than 50 カラット; France also produced a yellow-brown gem-grade barite weighing 65 carats after processing.