• M202 Blue Barite Crystals •
(Colorado)

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• M202 Blue Barite Crystals •
(Colorado)

Pretty sky-blue barite crystals from Colorado. These specimens weredug with hand tools by one of Ray's Marine buddies out in Colorado.Barite is a barium sulfate. Hardness 3 to 3-1/2. Barite is used inindustrial applications as oil well drilling, and in the medicalfield. Some translucent barite, although rare, can be faceted as agemstone. Barite is also called "heavy spar" because of its weight.Commonly found in bladed or tubular crystals. Colors of barite mayrange from colorless or white, blue, green, yellow, and shades of red.

Barium sulfate is used for its density, insolubility, and X-rayopacity. Barite, also spelled "Baryte", is used as an insoluble heavymud-like past when drilling oil wells, and in purer form, as an X-rayradio-constraste agent for imaging the human gastrointestinal tract.(Commonly called a "barium enema". Lots of fun!)

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The barite, orbaryte, group consists of baryte, celestine, anglesite, and anhydrite.

Barite commonly occurs in lead-zinc veins in limestones, in hot springdeposits, and hematite ore. Barite has also been identified inmeteorites. Historically barite was used for the production of bariumhydroxide for sugar refining, and as a white pigment for textiles,paper, and paint.

Weight: .15, .30, .50

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