Barite:
1.Barium sulfate; a mineral frequently used to increase the weight or density of drilling mud.
Its relative density is 4.2 (or 4.2 times denser than water).
See barium sulfate, mud.
2.
Weighting material with a specific gravity of 4.37 used to increase the apparent density of a liquid drilling fluid system.
Barite [baso4] is the most common weighting agent used today.
It is a mined material ground to an api specification such that particle sizes are predominantly in the 3 to 74 micron range.
