Baryte Mines

Baryte or Barite, also known as heavy spar, is chemically speaking barium sulphate Ba(SO₄). With a specific weight of 4.5 g/cm³ it is significantly heavier than normal rock, hence the name. Baryte normally occurs in the rock as a coarse, white vein, especially in polymetallic deposits it is found in the fissures along with fluorspar. So it is formed from hydrothermal solutions, but also sediment-exhalative, especially where barium- and sulfate-rich solutions mix. Barytes sometimes show a yellowish, orange or pink fluorescence under UV light.

Originally, baryte was considered to be waste rock and was either filled in the mine or deposited on spoil heaps. Only in the 20th century did baryte attain an economic value. It is used among other things:

for the extraction of barium
as additive for drilling fluids
for the manufacture of white pigments such as Lithopone
for photographic paper
as a component of heavy concrete
as a contrast medium in medical imaging
as an aggregate in concrete to increase shielding against radiation, in X-ray rooms or treatment rooms in radiation therapy
as insulation material in vehicle construction
in coal processing
in hard coal mining
as flushing agent additive for deep hole drilling

Some mines which were originally mined for ore, especially polymetallic ores, are now mined for both the ore and the former waste material baryte and fluorite. In total, they operate profitable again. There are also some examples where spoil heaps are mined for baryte. Baryte is currently mined in:

Alston Moor, Cumbria, Frizington, Mowbray and Isle of Arran in Great Britain
Iglesias on Sardinia
Baia Sprie and Cavnic in Romania
Banská Štiavnica in Slovakia
Dědova hora and Příbram in the Czech Republic
Elk Creek, South Dakota in the U.S.A.
Grube Clara and Grube Niederschlag in Germany