Barite is the principal ore of barium.

Barium has very high number of

applications. It is known to have more
than 2000 industrial uses. However, the
majority of barite mined is
extract barium. It is valuable in its native
form because of high density. It is mostly
used by oil & gas industry as an
ingredient of drilling mud. This slurry is
pumped into the drill stem
gas and other fluids from entering the
wellbore during drilling operations. The
drilling mud also lubricates and cools the
drilling bit and carries rock cuttings back
to the surface, but th
accomplished by any drilling fluid. It is
added to the mud only to increase its
density.