Barite Mineral Specimen

  • $4.00


Lovely 3.0 oz Barite Mineral Specimen

This sample hails from the Mitchell Range in San Bernardino, California, USA. It comes from a deposit near the site of the former Barium Queen mine. It shows some nice tabular growth with a complex of intersecting crystals.

Barite is a mineral with the chemical formula BaSo4, a hardness of 3 to 3.5 on the Mohs scale, a specific gravity of 4.5, and an orthorhombic crystal structure. It is a primary ore for the element barium, and typically forms in in hydothermal veins, where it is often present as a gangue mineral along with fluorite, galena, quartz, calcite and dolomite. Barite is a member of the sulfate mineral family. Barite is used in the manufacture of paper and rubber, is used in radiology, and is present in drilling muds. (Mineralogy 3 ed, Perkins)

You will receive the specimen pictured.