Rival demands for barium Available to Purchase

Although blanc fixe and lithopone have become less important as pigments these days, current resources of British barytes still prove of interest to several industries. In Scotland the Highland and Islands Development Board is developing the search for barytes, especialy since a major application has come in winning North Sea oil and gas. Barytes admixed with colloidal clay is essential as “heavy mud lubricant,” with an estimated 95 per cent of world resources of barytes now consumed in this major field. Every hundred feet depth of drilling calls for one tonne of ground barytes — all of this being returned to the earth and lost. With barium called for in pigments and extenders for the paint, rubber and chemical industries, British resources of barium minerals assume much significance.