sulfates
Baryte
Ba(SO4)
- Also known as
- baritebarytesdesert rose
- Crystal system
- orthorhombic
- Hardness
- 3–3.5 on the Mohs scale
- Lustre
- vitreous
- Colour
- White, colourless, blue, yellow, brown
- Where it forms
- In hydrothermal veins, in hot springs, and as concretions and rosettes in sediment.
- Chiefly from
- MoroccoChinaIndiaOklahoma, United States
Why it is that colour
Impurities; pure baryte is white or colourless. Its most striking property is not colour but weight — it is startlingly heavy for a pale, soft, non-metallic mineral.
Safety
Barium compounds are toxic, but barium sulfate is exceptionally insoluble, which is precisely why it is safe enough to be swallowed as a medical contrast agent. Solid baryte is safe to handle. Do not powder it, and do not confuse it with soluble barium salts, which are seriously poisonous.
Where it comes from
China, India and Morocco dominate production. The overwhelming majority goes into oil and gas drilling mud, where its density holds down well pressure — global consumption tracks the drilling rig count more closely than anything else.
Historical use
The barium meal and barium enema used in radiography are suspensions of this mineral: it blocks X-rays because barium is heavy, and it passes through the body unabsorbed because the sulfate is insoluble. The IMA-approved spelling is baryte; barite is the common American variant.
Recorded as history and attributed where possible. That a stone was used for something establishes that people used it, not that it worked.
Worth knowing
Baryte is a good demonstration that toxicity is about chemistry rather than about which elements are present. Barium is genuinely poisonous — soluble barium salts cause potassium depletion, paralysis and death, and barium carbonate has been used as rat poison. Barium sulfate is so insoluble that hospitals give it to people to drink.
Same element, opposite verdict, and the difference is whether the compound dissolves. This is the principle that governs most of the toxicity ratings in this collection, and it is why "contains a heavy metal" is not by itself an answer.
Identity checked against IMA-CNMNC master list, June 2025.