Barite and oil are blended and then coated on a cloth base to make tarpaulins; barite powder is used to refine kerosene; used as a contrast agent for digestive tracts in the pharmaceutical industry; it can also be used to produce pesticides, leather, and fireworks. In addition, barite is also used to extract barium metal, as a getter and adhesive for TV and other vacuum tubes. Barium is alloyed with other metals (aluminum, magnesium, lead, calcium) for bearing manufacturing.

1. Mineral name: Barite.

2. Chemical composition: (Ba, Sr) SO4, often containing Ca and Sr.

3. Crystal system and crystal habit: orthorhombic system, orthorhombic bipyramid, plate crystal, granular, fibrous aggregate.

4. Color: light yellow, white to colorless. Sr-rich is often light blue.

5. Gloss and transparency: glass gloss, resin gloss, cleavage surface pearl gloss; transparent and translucent.

6, optical: biaxial crystal, positive light.

7. Refractive index and birefringence: The refractive index is 1.63631.648 (+0.001, -0.002); the birefringence is 0.012.

8. Polychromaticity: weak.

9. Fluorescence: Sometimes shows fluorescence, often shows phosphorescence, and is faint blue or light green.

10. Cleavage and fracture: The two groups are completely cleaved and brittle.

11. Mohs hardness: 3 ~ 4.

12. Density: 4.5 (+0.10, -0.20) g / cm3.

13. Magnification inspection: There are often many gas-liquid two-phase inclusions in transparent gemstones. In the barite produced in Germany, there were transparent scarlet HgS heart-shaped crystals.

14. Preservation Note: Because it is soft and easy to be cleaved, it cannot be used as jewelry for viewing only, and is very sensitive to heat. It will often crack in the flame, so be careful.

Those who are transparent and flawless can be processed into faceted type, but the crystal is required to be greater than 0.6ct. 65ct yellow-brown seeds are deposited in France.

Occurrence and place of origin: Produced in low-temperature hydrothermal deposits. Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Nova Scotia are important sources of barite. Other places of origin include the United States, Britain, and France.