■HI hHHB BHHHI HMRffi ■-(■■'■"■■■■.■■■ ■NAN Witts «™1 ■BBiB mHm ■Hhh ■'■■■■■■■ •■ ,:■■■■:. ; ■ ■■,■,;.:■.■■-■■:■: ■I "■'■;-. , : '.■■■■■:■ afflsM 1 iinni w&d >'<^\/ %•"/ V-^V %'^K- '• ^ ^ -i .6* V vW A <, °4, »TTi- *$P .. V ••-•' 4** ... ^ <=!» 4° - *-!* <*^ 4.0 r//A, ^^> >* .. . . V^V . . . .. v * v . . - . . VT^V.. ^ .. i °*.i^^ °o ys&k.-% c°*.^t>o F*Zmk\> A »r+ ^ » , v £°* ^■4 Q*. > V> ft A * A ,* v % ?• C^^n. -^ii^O 4\V%«. s°* > . « • O - "^ 4 > y % f • o>^ ^ ^ H^ .^°* »G f i***). Information Circular 9115 Barite Availability- Market Economy Countries A Minerals Availability Appraisal By Joseph S. Coffman and Catherine C. Kilgore UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Donald Paul Hodel, Secretary BUREAU OF MINES Robert C. Horton, Director As the Nation's principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has responsibility for most of our nationally owned public lands and natural resources. This includes fostering the wisest use of our land and water resources, protecting our fish and wildlife, preserving the environment and cultural values of our na- tional parks and historical places, and providing for the enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation. The Department assesses our energy and mineral resources and works to assure that their development is in the best interests of all our people. The Department also has a major responsibility for American Indian reservation communities and for people who live in island territories under U.S. administration. A>%l5 (\0< Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Coffman, Joseph S. Barite availability— market economy countries. (Information circular; 9115) Bibliography: p. 21 Supt. of Docs. no. : I 28.27:9115 1. Barite. I. Kilgore, Catherine C. II. Title. III. Series: Information circular (United States. Bureau of Mines); 9115. TN295.U4 [TN948.B18] 622 s [338.2'7662] 86-600246 fc PREFACE The Bureau of Mines is assessing the worldwide availability of selected minerals of economic significance, most of which are also critical minerals. The Bureau iden- tifies, collects, compiles, and evaluates information on producing, developing, and ex- plored deposits, and on mineral processing plants worldwide. Objectives are to classify both domestic and foreign resources, to identify by cost evaluation those demonstrated resources that are reserves, and to prepare analyses of mineral availability. This report is one of a continuing series of reports that analyze the availability of minerals from domestic and foreign sources. Questions about, or comments on, these reports should be addressed to Chief, Division of Minerals Availability, Bureau of Mines, 2401 E St. N.W., Washington, DC 20241. "*- 111 CONTENTS Page Preface i Abstract 1 Introduction 2 Commodity overview 2 Production and consumption 3 Geology 4 Resources 5 Operation summaries 9 Belgium 9 Brazil 10 Chile 10 France 10 Federal Republic of Germany 10 Greece 10 India 10 Ireland 11 Italy 11 Mexico 11 Morocco 11 Pakistan 12 Peru 12 Spain 13 Thailand 13 United Kingdom 14 United States 14 Page Arkansas 14 Georgia 14 Illinois 14 Missouri 14. Nevada 15 Washington 16 Engineering and economic analysis 16 Capital costs 16 Operating costs 17 Mining 17 Beneficiation 17 Personnel 18 Transportation 18 Production cost summary 18 Availability 19 Mud-grade barite 19 Chemical- and filler-grade barite 20 Summary 20 References 21 Appendix A.— Methodology 22 Appendix B.— Ownership of barite operations .... 24 Appendix C— Exchange rates per U.S. dollar and comparison of costs between 1982 and 1984 for countries evaluated 25 ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Relationship of barite production and consumption to well-drilling activity 4 2. Mineral resource classification categories 5 3. Regional distribution of demonstrated barite resources for evaluated operations 5 4. Relationship between U.S. and non-U.S.MEC identified resources 6 5. Relationship between U.S. and non-U.S. resources in terms of producing and nonproducing operations, 1984 6 Locations of barite operations in— 6. Europe and Morocco 9 7. Brazil, Chile, and Peru 10 8. India and Pakistan 11 9. Mexico and the United States 12 10. Thailand 13 11. Missouri 15 12. Nevada 15 13. Regional weighted-average total cost of production for primary mud-grade barite concentrates 18 14. Cost and total availability of mud-grade barite at 0-pct and 15-pct DCFROR 19 15. Comparison of total availability of mud-grade barite from U.S. and non-U.S. operations at a 15-pct DCFROR 19 16. Cost and total availability of chemical- and filler-grade barite at 0-pct and 15-pct DCFROR 20 TABLES 1. Barite market prices, 1984 3 2. World barite production by country, 1979-84 3 3. U.S. barite trade and consumption statistics, 1979-84 4 4. U.S. barite import tariffs 4 5. MEC barite resources, 1984 7 6. Barite mine and deposit data 7 7. Barite mining and beneficiation capital costs, by region 16 IV Page 8. Barite open pit mining costs, by region 17 9. Barite beneficiation operating costs, by method 17 10. Barite beneficiation operating costs, by region 18 11. Barite mining and beneficiation personnel productivity and labor rates, by region 18 12. Selected barite ocean shipping costs 18 13. Percentage distribution of barite production costs 19 14. Comparison of available barite concentrates from U.S. and non-U.S. producing mines and nonproducing deposits 20 A-l. Byproduct prices used in economic evaluations 23 UNIT OF MEASURE ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS REPORT cm centimeter mt/yr metric ton per year ft foot mm millimeter km kilometer Mmt million metric tons km 2 square kilometer pet percent m meter sp gr specific gravity mm millimeter tr oz troy ounce Mmt million metric tons US$/mt U.S. dollar per metric ton mt metric ton yr year mt/d metric ton per day BARITE AVAILABILITY— MARKET ECONOMY COUNTRIES A Minerals Availability Appraisal By Joseph S. Coffman 1 and Catherine C. Kilgore 2 ABSTRACT The Bureau of Mines investigated the availability of barite (BaS0 4 ) from 35 U.S. and 41 non-U.S. mines and deposits in 17 market economy countries (MEC's). This evaluation assesses the availability of mud-grade barite, and concentrates consumed by the chemicals and fillers industries. The demonstrated resources defined in this analysis totaled 130 million metric tons (Mmt) of barite (contained BaS0 4 ), yielding a potential 115 Mmt of recoverable barite concentrates. At the 1984 MEC production rate, the evaluated resources would last about 30 yr; however, this would include produc- tion costs of up to $100/mt concentrate. An average price needed to cover all costs of production over the life of each opera- tion was determined for both mud-grade and chemical- and filler-grade barite products. Including a 0-pct discounted-cash-flow rate of return (DCFROR), regional weighted- average total production cost ranged from $38/mt for barite concentrates in Asia to $71/mt for U.S. operations. Transportation costs have the greatest impact, contributing up to 60 pet of the total cost of production. Rail transportation costs from the mines to U.S. markets are generally significantly higher than ocean shipping rates on imports. 'Physical scientist. "Geologist. Minerals Availability Field Office, Bureau of Mines, Denver, CO. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this report is to identify and define barite resources and to evaluate the production potential and fac- tors affecting the availability of mud-grade, chemical-grade, and filler-grade barite from U.S. and non-U.S. deposits. For this study, the Bureau of Mines analyzed the engineering and economic availability of barite concentrates of 76 mines and deposits (66 operations) in 17 market economy coun- tries (MEC's), including the United States. Of the operations analyzed, 45 were producing during 1984, 11 were shut down, 2 were in development stages, and 8 were undeveloped. Some of the shut-down operations could reopen with improved market conditions. Chemical- or filler-grade barite amounted to a little over 8 pet of the total evaluated barite production. The MEC's included in this evaluation have produced an average of 87 percent of the barite from all MEC's between the years 1979 and 1984. The procedure for this study was to identify recoverable resources and those engineering and economic parameters that would affect production from the deposits selected for evaluation. Brown and Root Development, Inc., met with mining company officials to obtain information on the 41 foreign properties under contract J0225017 (6) 3 . In some cases, site visits also were made. Information on domestic deposits was provided by personnel at Bureau of Mines field operations centers. Demonstrated and identified resources were defined; capital and operating costs for the appropriate mining and beneficiation methods were estimated; transportation costs to the known market areas were assessed; and economic cost evaluations were performed for each deposit, using con- stant January 1984 U.S. dollars. Production cost estimates were based on the exploitation of the entire demonstrated resource of each deposit, and therefore they may not reflect the current (1984) costs. Finally, the individual deposit evaluations were aggregated to show potential barite availability for mud and chemical and filler grades at various long-run constant-dollar commodity prices. The methodology used in the deposit evaluations is explained in appendix A. COMMODITY OVERVIEW Barite (BaS0 4 ) is a soft, chemically inert mineral con- taining 58.8 pet Ba and having a specific gravity of 4.5. It is the only mineral form of barium that is commercially ex- ploited; barium metal by itself has little commercial application. The commercially exploitable occurrences of barite are relatively widespread; in 1979-84 a total of 45 countries recorded barite production. Barite is generally easy to con- centrate by simple gravity methods; relatively small deposits can be developed and mined with comparatively small preproduction costs. By far, the largest use of barite is as a weighting material in oil and gas well drilling fluids (drilling mud). In 1983, over 96 pet of the barite consumed in the United States and 85 to 90 pet of that consumed in Europe was as drilling mud (3). More than 2.4 Mmt barite was consumed in drilling fluids in the United States in 1983, or about 31.3 mt per well drilled (4). The remainder was used in various chemical and filler applications. On a worldwide basis, barite is distributed by a rela- tively few service companies. Much of the barite is marketed by the companies as a component of their drilling engineer- ing services. These service companies generally offer com- plete engineering at the well site, including providing drill- ing mud, delivering it to the well site, and being responsi- ble for maintaining specified barite content of the drilling fluid. Market specifications of barite for drilling mud are established by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and its European counterpart, Oil Companies Materials Associa- tion (OCMA). The principal specification is that the material have a specific gravity of at least 4.2 (about 91 pet BaS0 4 ). A small percentage of iron is allowable (no definite specifica- tion), but it must be free of soluble salts. The final product must be ground to 97 pet passing 200 mesh with not more than 5 pet held on a 325-mesh screen (2). Lower grades of less than 4.2 sp gr are marketed, but they must be blended with higher grades to maintain the minimum specific grav- ity. In a few cases, fine-ground hematite is blended with barite to attain a higher specific gravity. This practice has limitations because the hematite is somewhat corrosive and more abrasive than barite, and users resist the blend. The crude barite is reduced to API size specifications in Raymond-type roller mills. These installations produce ground barite for either bagged or bulk shipment. For the longer distance shipments, the ground barite is normally bagged. Preferably, the barite is ground near where it is to be used since there is no economic advantage to grinding at the mine site; increased costs for shipping the ground barite are generally higher than the cost of grinding. Minesite grinding is generally restricted to barite destined for areas without grinding facilities. The chemical and filler industries utilize both precipitated salts and natural ore in a variety of applica- tions as explained below (4). Precipitated barium carbonate (BaC0 3 ) is a base for the production of most barite chemicals and is used in ceramic glaze enhancement and glass manufacturing. Other chemical uses include metal hardening, fabric treatment, water purification, magnesium metal production, and brick manufacture (barium carbonate); munitions (barium nitrate); electric furnace ferrous metallurgy (barium oxide); ceramics, oils, and sugar refining (barium hydroxide); and electronics (barium titanite). Blanc fixe, a precipitated high-purity barium sulfate, is used as a white filler principally in paints, rubber, and inks. Lithophone, a mixture of BaS0 4 , ZnO, ZnS, was formerly used as a white pigment in paint but has largely been replaced by Ti0 2 . Bleached and unbleached natural 'Italic numbers in parentheses refer to items in the list of references preceding the appendixes at the end of this report. Table 1.— Barite market prices, 1984 (3, 10, 14) Region and product BaS0 4 grade, % Comments Price, $/mt Europe: Ground, white, paint grade 96-98 OCMA-grade bulk: Ground +91 Unground +91 United States: Drilling-mud grade, 4.2-4.3 sp gr: Ground 83-93 Unground 83-93 Chemical grade: Ground (325-mesh) ... 95 Unground 95 Delivered U.K 170-190 Delivered Aberdeen . . . 70- 80 f.o.b. Morocco 40 c.i.f. U.S. gulf coast. . . 80-115 . . do 46 f.o.b. U.S. plant 80-165 . . do 95 barite is used principally as an undercoat filler for automobile paints. Chemical-grade barite and that used for fillers and ceramics generally must have a minimum grade of 95 pet BaS0 4 . Other restrictions include iron content (maximum 0.5 to 1.0 pet Fe, depending on the use), SrS0 4 (maximum 1 pet), and fluorine (trace). For glass manufacturing, the material is limited to 0.15 pet Fe 2 3 but will take up to 1.5 pet Si0 2 . Market prices for barite have remained relatively stable in average constant dollars over the last 20 yr (4). Typical early 1984 published prices for several barite products are shown in table 1. PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION For many years the United States has been the world's leading producer of barite. However, from a record 2.5 Mmt in 1981, U.S. production declined to about 654,000 mt in 1983, with Nevada accounting for about 88 pet. In 1983, China became the leading producer at 1 Mmt. Production statistics for 1979-84 are shown in table 2 for both MEC's and centrally planned economy countries (CPEC's). Table 2.— World barite production by country, 1979-84 (24) (Thousand metric tons) Country 1979 1980 1981 1981 1983 1984© MEC's: Algeria 102 98 89 102 109 109 Argentina 55 50 49 36 61 60 Australia 94 39 41 28 40 40 Belgium 30 40 40 40 40 Brazil 108 104 116 120 118 118 Canada 75 94 86 28 45 50 Chile 227 226 259 292 114 118 France 170 237 190 156 150 141 Germany, Federal 161 175 165 166 164 181 Republic of Greece 48 48 47 47 30 32 India 491 434 354 326 323 417 Iran 180 150 75 80 85 91 Ireland 328 260 274 264 200 200 Italy 215 203 177 180 139 107 Japan 55 56 56 60 70 66 Malaysia 2 19 25 22 36 Mexico 151 269 317 364 357 362 Morocco 287 320 465 538 282 299 Pakistan 34 14 24 26 28 30 Peru 444 414 409 374 163 163 Spain 74 60 53 50 53 50 Thailand 378 305 307 331 187 175 Tunisia 15 27 24 31 20 27 Turkey 100 128 186 107 77 181 United Kingdom 45 54 63 81 36 73 United States 1 1,916 2,036 2,584 1,673 684 703 Yugoslavia 46 48 44 32 30 36 Other MEC* 61 42 32 40 30 25 Total 5,862 5,921 6,545 5,597 3,657 3,931 CPEC's: China 499 680 798 899 998 998 U.S.S.R 499 508 508 517 517 544 Other CPEC 3 393 384 361 266 257 253 Total 1,391 1,572 1,667 1,682 1,772 1,795 Grand total 7,253 7,493 8,212 7,279 5,429 5,729~ e Estimated. 1 Sold or used by producers. 2 Other MEC's: Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, Kenya, Republic of Korea, Philippines, Portugal, Republic of South Africa, Zimbabwe. Klther CPEC's: Afghanistan, Czechoslovakia, German Democratic Republic, North Korea, Poland, Romania. A total of 45 countries recorded barite production dur- ing the period 1979-84. Production levels were affected by the 1982 worldwide recession, with a more than 30-pct decrease in production between 1981 and 1983. Barite production from the CPEC's averaged about 20 pet of the world total between 1979 and 1982. However, the increase in Chinese production, coupled with a decline in most MEC's (nearly 1 Mmt in the United States alone), enabled the CPEC's to reach to 33 pet of total world pro- duction in 1984. The United States is by far the world's largest consumer of barite and has always been a substantial importer. The United States has a level of drilling about four times that of the rest of the world in terms of footage drilled. Figure 1 shows a relationship between drilling activity and MEC production and U.S. consumption. As indicated, the ratio of MEC barite production to the MEC footage drilled decreased from 1.82 mt per 100 ft in 1979 to 0.89 mt per 100 ft in 1983. This may be partly due to more exports to countries outside the MEC's, but may also reflect a buildup of surpluses during the years of mine capacity expansion through 1981. A similar relationship exists between U.S. consumption and drilling, although the 1979 and 1983 ratios are not as far apart. As with production, U.S. consumption peaked in 1981 at about 4.3 Mmt, decreasing to about 2.6 Mmt in 1984; this consumption represented about 46 pet of the total world pro- duction, or about 68 pet of the MEC production. U.S. trade and consumption statistics for the years 1979-84 are shown in table 3. As shown, China has been dominant in the U.S. import statistics in recent years. Even with the downturn in U.S. consumption from 1981 to 1984, imports from China continued to increase. This increase in the share of the U.S. market has apparently been at the expense of imports from other countries, such as Chile, Ireland, Morocco, and Peru. Much of the ore from China is higher grade (+4.3 sp gr) and can be blended with lower grade material. U.S. tariff restrictions on barite as of 1984 are shown in table 4. Eight of the 16 foreign nations included in this evaluation qualify for the U.S. Generalized System of Preference (GSP), which allows duty-free entry of imports into the United States. These are Brazil, Chile, India, Mex- 700 ■p 600 >^ 10 o T-l >-■ 500 h- H > H H U < 400 CD Z H J _J H DC 300 U 200 MEC barite production - 5 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 Figure 1 .—Relationship of barite production and consumption to well-drilling activity. 1984 -P E Z O H H CL D CO z o o Q z < z o H u D Q O cr Q. UJ r- H rr < Table 3.— U.S. barite trade and consumption statistics, 1979-84 (3) (Thousand metric tons) Imports: Crude barite from— Chile 129 China 212 India 186 Ireland 154 Mexico 122 Morocco 121 Peru 307 Thailand 107 Other 12 Total 1 ,350 Ground barite 24 Total imports 1 ,374 Less exports 99 Net imports 1 ,275 U.S. consumption 2,923 Imports, pet of consumption 44 159 285 301 74 79 476 667 708 706 821 132 50 153 22 121 75 71 74 36 118 121 130 119 54 186 209 318 160 304 297 288 219 118 58 118 21 138 44 59 118 16 63 24 38 1,677 3 1,728 12 2,104 22 1,267 1 1,680 88 1,740 56 2,126 3 1,268 1 1,592 3,310 48 1,684 4,277 39 2,123 3,668 58 1,267 2,498 51 1,570 41 1,611 1 1,610 2,630 61 Table 4.— U.S. barite import tariffs (4) (Dollars per long ton) 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 Type of barite Most favored nation Non-most favored nation Crude . Ground $1.27 3.25 $4.00 7.50 ico, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, and Thailand. The GSP was established as a temporary 10-yr program under the Trade Act of 1974, and was renewed until 1993 under the Trade and Tariff Act of 1985. Nearly 100 pet of the barite ore imported is in the form of crude (unground) barite. Imported ground barite is generally chemical or filler grade. GEOLOGY Barite occurs principally in bedded, vein, and residual deposits. It also occurs as a gangue mineral in association with metallic sulfide deposits. In terms of world barite resources, bedded deposits are the most important. They generally occur as stratiform beds, lenses, or discontinuous horizons that are conformable with the enclosing rocks. The bedded deposits often involve several lenses or horizons of barite grouped together. They usually exhibit a gradation from higher grade material (direct shipping grade, 4.2 sp gr) near the center of the lens, to lower grades towards the extremities. This gradation occurs stratigraphically as well; that is, the barite content gener- ally decreases nearer the enclosing rock contact. Vein deposits are generally hydrothermal in origin and are smaller than bedded deposits. They may be found in calcareous rocks and associated with fluorite, quartz, or metallic sulfides. Detrital (residual) deposits of barite are formed in a clay- bearing or clay residuum that results from surficial weathering. These are normally low-grade deposits (6 pet to 10 pet BaS0 4 ) and have been exploited mainly for chemical-grade barite. RESOURCES Barite resources evaluated in this study are defined ac- cording to the mineral resource-reserve classification developed jointly by the Bureau of Mines and the U.S. Geological Survey (25). The classification categories are il- lustrated in figure 2. It was found that in many cases advance exploration defines only a few years of production. This is because the possibility of fluctuations in drilling activities, on which barite consumption depends, make it difficult for a company to justify the expense of establishing a long-range resource. In addition, barite is mined and processed relatively easily and normally requires little initial capital expenditure. Thus, it is not necessary to develop large resources to recover initial invested capital. For this study, cost estimates and analyses were per- formed on demonstrated tonnages only (measured plus in- dicated resources as of January 1984). Demonstrated resources totaled 130 Mmt contained BaS0 4 from the 30 U.S. and 36 non-U.S. operations evaluated. A regional breakdown of these resources is shown in figure 3. The identified resources (measured plus indicated plus inferred) were also estimated, but not included in the analyses. A comparison of demonstrated and identified resources from U.S. and non-U.S. deposits is shown in figure 4. Figure 5 illustrates the relationship between demonstrated resources contained in producing and non- producing deposits. Resources, by country, are shown in table 5, and mine and deposit data are shown in table 6. Locations of the deposits are shown in figures 6-12 in the following section. Ownership of the properties are listed in appendix B. United States Asia Latin Europe Morocco America Figure 3.— Regional distribution of demonstrated barite resources for evaluated operations. Cumulative production IDENTIFIED RESOURCES UNDISCOVERED RESOURCES Demonstrated Inferred Probability range Measured | Indicated Hypothetical *"' Speculative ECONOMIC Reserve Inferred reserve base 1 1 1 1 MARGINALLY ECONOMIC base SUB- ECONOMIC J_ Other occurrences Includes nonconventional and low-grade materials Figure 2.— Mineral resource classification categories. U.S. identified resources 70.3 Mmt contained BaSO, Non-U. S. identified resources 142.8 Mmt contained BaSCT, Figure 4.— Relationship between U.S. and non-U. S. MEC identified resources. U.S. evaluated resources 54.5 Mmt contained BaSO. Non-U. S. evaluated resources 75 Mmt contained BaSO. Figure 5.— Relationship between U.S. and non-U.S. resources in terms of producing and nonproducing operations, 1984. Table 5.— MEC barite resources 1 , 1984 (Million metric tons) Demonstrated Identified Country name In situ material Contained BaS0 4 Recoverable product In situ Contained material BaSO„ Belgium Brazil Chile France Germany, Federal Republic of Greece India Ireland Italy Mexico Morocco Pakistan Peru Spain Thailand United Kingdom United States: Arkansas 2 Georgia Illinois Missouri Nevada Washington Total U.S Grand total W Withheld, company proprietary data. Included with Arkansas. Resources estimated for the purpose of this analysis, includes Washington. 549 700 147 6,300 2,260 573 34,600 1,514 9,868 10,246 10,718 2,400 3,860 5,365 14,657 4,381 10,655 24,893 1,945 90,920 57,883 W 186,296 294,434 384 658 125 2,415 1,134 395 31,832 1,347 2,013 8,133 9,821 2,136 3,474 1,229 9,906 2,030 5,035 2,217 155 6,914 40,159 W 54,480 131,512 336 617 104 1,659 735 326 31,140 1,514 1,200 6,597 8,864 2,026 3,480 977 8,267 2,062 4,060 1,700 93 4,606 35,107 W 45,566 115,469 823 700 4,000 9,000 3,845 1,000 71 ,400 2,400 23,150 20,000 23,210 5,000 8,030 7,475 22,200 5,998 18,300 25,800 2,300 91,920 84,131 W 222,451 430,682 576 658 3,320 3,490 1,634 690 60,732 2,256 4,323 16,000 17,633 4,250 7,227 1,536 14,616 3,840 8,475 2,358 184 7,011 52,305 W 70,333 213,104 Table 6.— Barite mine and deposit data Country, State, and property name Status Mining method Beneficiation method End-use products 1 Drilling ..do ..do Chemical 4 Drilling, CaF 2 . . . Drilling, chemical, CaF 2 . Chemical Drilling ..do ..do Drilling ..do Drilling, chemical, CaF 2 , Pb. Drilling, chemical, Pb, Ag. Drilling ..do Drilling Drilling ..do ..do ..do Drilling ..do Drilling, Pb.Zn . . Estimated annual capacity, 2 mt/yr Belgium: Fleurus Brazil: Camamu Chile: Baritex-Resguardo France: Barytine de Chaillac . Rossignol Total Germany, Federal Republic of: Clara Dreislar Total Greece: Mykonos Mykobar . India: Mangampet Tiffin Total Ireland: Ballynoe Italy: Barego Mineraria Silius Montego Total Mexico: Barita de Santa Rosa (Barosa) Barita de Sonora Cobachi Total Morocco: Jbel Ihroud Seksaoua Tessaout Zelmu Total Pakistan: Gunga Peru: Chagla (Tingo Maria) Graciela-Juanita and Minera Barmine Total Producing ..do .... ..do .... do do Producing . .do ( 5 ) Producing . . . ..do Producing ..do ..do do Producing ..do Developing Producing ..do .... ..do .... ..do .... Producing . . . Explored Producing . . . Open pit . . . ..do Open stope Open pit . . Shrinkage Sublevel stoping Filled stoping . . . Shrinkage Open pit . ..do.... Open pit . Sublevel stoping ..do Overhand shrinkage Room and pillar. Open pit . ..do... Open pit Shrinkage Room and pillar. Open pit Open pit . ..do Open pit, cut and fill. Flotation gravity 3 Gravity Gravity, handsorting. Flotation Heavy media. Flotation ..do ... Gravity . . Handsorting ..do Crushing Gravity. . Flotation .do Handsorting, flotation. ..do Flotation . . . Gravity Handsorting ..do Crushing . . . Handsorting Crushing . . . Handsorting, flotation. 40,000 51,900 95,600 101,600 9,000 110,600 W W 63,600 42,200 360,000 24,000 384,000 250,000 35,100 25,800 49,500 110,400 79,100 106,700 202,200 388,000 36,900 111,400 17,100 235,200 400,600 26,200 125,000 254,000 379,000 Table 6.— Barite mine and deposit data— Continued Country, State, and property name Status Mining method Beneficiation method End-use products 1 Estimated annual capacity, 2 mt/yr Spain: Guillermin-San Fernando . La Carolina Total Thailand: Attbar-Thung Wa Ban Hin Khao . . . Khao Mai Phai . . Nidhi Oriental Gold . . . Siam Barite STA Tip Total United Kingdom: Aberfeldy . . Derbyshire . Total United States: Arkansas: Fancy Hill-McKnight Georgia: New Riverside Paga Total Illinois: Barnett Denton Henson Total . Missouri: Apex-Mineral Point Cadet Dresser No. 4 Dresser No. 10 Kingston Old Mines Richwoods Stone Spring Sun Total Nevada: Ann Argenta East Northumberland Easy Miner Fish Creek Greystone Heavy Spar Kay Lakes Mountain Springs P&S Rossi-Queen Lode Snoose, Big Ledge, Jungle Stormy Creek Total Washington: Flagstaff Mountain, Bruce Creek Total U.S. Producing ..do .... Producing ..do .... ..do .... ..do ..do .... ..do .... ..do .... ..do .... Explored . Producing Shutdown Producing ..do .... P) Producing P) Shutdown . ( 8 ) Shutdown . ..do ( 8 ) Shutdown . . ( 8 ) Explored . . . Shutdown . . Explored . Producing Shutdown Explored . ..do Producing Shutdown Explored . ..do Producing Shutdown Producing Shutdown ..do .... Developing Sublevel stope . Open pit Open pit 6 ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... Shrinkage Open pit, sublevel stope. Open pit. ..do. ..do. Shrinkage Room and pillar . Shrinkage Open pit . ..do. ... ..do.... ..do... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... Open pit . ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... ..do.... Open pit . Grand total . Flotation . . . Gravity Washing . . . ..do . . do Handsorting ..do Washing . . . Handsorting Washing . . . Crushing . . . Flotation . . . Flotation . . . ..do ..do Flotation . . . ..do ..do Jig, flotation Jig Jig Jig Jig Jig Jig Jig Jig Jig Jig Jig Jig Flotation . . . Jig Jig Jig Jig Jig Flotation . . . Jig Jig Jig Flotation . . . Drilling, Pb Drilling Drilling ..do ..do ..do ..do ..do ..do ..do ..do Drilling, CaF 2 , Pb . Drilling Chemical ..do Chemical, Pb, Zn, CaF 2 . . . do ..do Drilling ..do ..do ..do Drilling, chemical . Chemical Drilling, chemical . Drilling Chemical Drilling ..do ..do ..do ..do ..do ..do ..do ..do ..do ..do ..do ..do ..do Drilling 35,500 32,400 67,900 68,000 57,800 40,000 60,000 30,000 23,600 45,000 40,300 364,700 150,000 11,800 161,800 178,000 28,000 32,800 60,800 2,000 3,400 900 6,300 73,600 22,800 13,600 18,100 48,400 8,800 45,900 35,400 17,600 284,200 99,000 265,600 83,600 67,100 169,200 337,800 50,100 70,100 344,000 275,700 184,900 295,400 74,200 128,000 2,444,700 123,400 3,097,400 6,037,300 1 CaF 2 =Fluorspar; Pb, Zn, Ag = lead, zinc, silver concentrates, respectively. Estimated 1984 potential product capacity; proposed for nonproducers. 3 Various gravity methods (jig, tables, spirals, etc.). includes both chemical and filler grades. 5 Shutdown in late 1984. 6 Some mines use gophering on narrow veins when open pit limits are reached. 'Depleted and closed in 1985. 8 Resumed production on a limited scale in late 1984. OPERATION SUMMARIES BELGIUM Barite production from the Fleurus Mine began prior to World War I, and production was relatively continuous through the late 1920's. The mine, located in Hainaut Prov- ince (fig. 6), has been operating as an open pit since 1979. Resources have recently been reported at about 1 Mmt ore (21); however, most of this is below the water table. For the purpose of this analysis, 1984 demonstrated resources are estimated at 549,000 mt. The thickness of the mineralized horizon is about 18 m, and the capacity is about 330 mt/d with an average strip- ping ratio of 4:1. The ore is beneficiated by gravity and flota- tion, and the product is railed to the coast and directed mainly to the North Sea drilling area. ...HUH I ll ^•NETHERLANDS! ; JQ • W'' ^| SWEDEN fy' KvxW North Sea frXvXxi • : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : x : : : : : :bkNMARK/>» UNITED KINGDOMxxxXXXXv xxx-o: Baltic Sea:\ /GERMAN "GERMANY/ 0. R. F.R. Berlin) POLAND \ SOVIET UNION •Frankfurt LUXEMBOURG} \ Z ^Sil£ s '-0VA FRANCE / R 6 j t * v '-'US i fil/.\ K/A *X*X PORTUGAL! SPAIN Madrid SWITZERLAND! rxxxxCORSlCAjr HUNGARY YUGOSLAVIA J:-:-:-x>vRom« \->: ROMANIA BULGARIA x:::xx|i::^xxSARDlNiA\//,/^:X : xxixi:ix;:>i X 9 *'° M W^/P^^^LMMm ■ -v^'-iVsv. sicii.. xxvx : : ::-ycREEC r\: : ::: Nodor 1 ;:X:X:X : X : : : X : X : >X Catablanca,-/' •/Miirtvjr morocco X-X-^jlvl-^xXj^Agad ir 14 ALGERIA .TUNISIA mm?* mm XjjfcCRE 3| LIBYA EGYPT 1 I I LEGEND • City or town X Mine A Deposit 500 I I Scale, km 1,000 / Aberfeldy 7 Barytine deChaillac 13 Mykonos Mykobar 2 Derbyshire 8 Rossignol 14 Zelmu 3 Ballynoe 9 Guillermin-San Fernando 15 Seksaoua 4 Fleurus 10 La Carolina 16 Jbel Ihroud 5 Dreislar II Barego and Montego 17 Tessaout 6 Clara 12 Mineraria Silius Figure 6.— Locations of barite operations in Europe and Morocco. 10 BRAZIL Annual barite production in Brazil has been in the range of 100,000 to 120,000 mt. About half of this is pro- duced from the Camamu open pit mine located in Camamu Bay south of Salvador (Bahia) (fig. 7). This mine has been producing since about 1944 and was the only Brazilian mine evaluated in this study. The mining horizon averages about 2.5 m thick, and beneficiation consists of a minor amount of handsorting, followed by log washing and spirals. The operation is de- signed to produce about 52,000 mt/yr of mud-grade barite. In the past, most of the product has been shipped to grind- ing plants in Venezuela and Trinidad. Recent developments in Brazil include the construction of an IMCO Services plant to recover barite from a colum- bium (Cb) operation and a Magcobar-Cal Confriana joint venture to develop other barite deposits in Bahia (8). the Channaral district (fig. 7). In general, even these mines have a number of satellite mines that supply ore. FRANCE Nearly all the production in France is used for chemicals and fillers. Production has come from numerous deposits in the central Massif of central France. Operations evaluated in this study include the Barytine de Chaillac and Rossignol Mines (fig. 6). The Barytine de Chaillac open pit operation produces about 40 pet of France's total pro- duction; the ore is beneficiated in a relatively complex flota- tion process. About 80 pet of the concentrates are exported to the Federal Republic of Germany. The underground Rossignol fluorspar mine produces, as byproducts, about 9,000 mt/yr of mud-grade barite and about 6,000 mt/yr of lead-barite concentrates used for heavy aggregate; the ore is concentrated by heavy media. LEGEND • City or town 500 i ' 1,000 I X Mine A Deposit Figure 7.— Locations of barite operations in Brazil, Chile, and Peru. CHILE Production in Chile has been mainly from three areas; from north to south these are Coquimbas, Channaral, and Copiapo. Most of the production has been shipped to the Milchem Inc. grinding plants on the U.S. gulf coast. Ore resources for Chile have been estimated at about 8 Mmt in the Channaral and Copiapo areas (26), although the estimate includes a large area that has not been explored sufficiently to establish significant demonstrated resources. The majority of production comes from a large number of small operations over broad areas. These were not evaluated since the individual resources were relatively in- significant. This evaluation includes two producing opera- tions, Baritex and Resguardo, which are near the coast in FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY Evaluated West German barite mines include the Clara fluorspar-barite mine and the Dreislar Mine (fig. 6). All pro- duction from the operations is consumed domestically by the chemical and filler industries. The Clara flotation mill is located near Wolfach; the original barite operation was modified during the 1970's to include fluorspar recovery. The Dreislar Mine was first operated around 1870, and has been operating continuously since 1957. Milling is by jig- ging and flotation. GREECE Barite production has been from deposits on the islands of Mykonos and Milos. The Mykonos Mykobar Mine (fig. 6) has generally accounted for 90 pet of the barite produced in Greece (about 40,000 to 45,000 mt/yr). Production began in 1953, but was suspended in late 1984 because of poor market conditions (12). INDIA Barite production in India declined from about 450,000 mt in 1979 to about 323,000 mt in 1983. The reduced market demand had some impact on the production, but a major cause was internal policies and shipping restrictions on unground barite (26, p. 29). Exports to the United States have fluctuated widely in recent years (186,000 mt in 1979, 21,000 mt in 1983). The two deposits evaluated, the state-owned Mangampet Mine and the adjacent privately owned Tiffin Mine, are located in the Mangampeta area near Cudappah and about 250 km northwest of the main shipping port of Madras (fig. 8). About 85 pet of the barite production in India is from the Cudappah area (19). Although Madras is the chief barite shipping port, some of the material must be railed to Bombay because of port congestion at Madras. The Mangampet Mine has been operating since 1977 and has a capacity to produce about 360,000 mt/yr, although production has been in the order of 250,000 to 300,000 mt/yr because of market and shipping constraints. The adjacent Tiffin Mine is a relatively small producer, approximately 24,000 mt/yr, and has been producing since 1970. 11 The Mangampet deposit has the largest resource of any known single deposit in the world. Because of the size and the unique character of the occurrence, the Government of India has designated part of the pit as a National Geological Monument. Total identified ore resources for Mangampet are estimated at a little over 70 Mmt. About half of this is in the high-grade ore (evaluated in this study), of which about 16 Mmt is available at a stripping ratio of less than 4:1 (11). Information indicates that the Tiffin area could contain an identified ore resource of 1.4 Mmt (19); the evaluated resource amounts to 973,000 mt (1984). At both mines the stripping of the overburden is done by contract, while the mining of the ore is done by the mine labor force. The overburden removal is somewhat mecha- nized with the use of a dragline, loaders, and trucks. The ore is handsorted into grades of plus 78, 82, 90, and 93 pet BaS0 4 and loaded by hand into trucks for haulage to the crusher. CHINA • Crty or town X Mine Figure 8.— Locations of barite operations in India and Pakistan. IRELAND The Ballynoe Mine (fig. 6) with a capacity of about 250,000 mt/yr, was evaluated for this study. The mine, operated by Magcobar (Ireland) Ltd., is located in Tipperary County about 60 km east of the port city of Foynes. The resources have been reported separately as ade- quate to cover 6 to 10 yr of production (in 1982) (23) and 6 to 8 yr (in 1983) (18). The ore is of marketable grade and requires no beneficiation. Mining by open pit began in 1963. Over the life of the resource, the stripping ratio is estimated at 6:1; the cur- rent (1984) ratio is about 4:1. The ore is crushed, then hauled by truck and rail to the shipping port of Foynes, where about 20 pet of the output can be ground. ITALY The majority of barite production in Italy is from the Iglesiantes area in southwestern Sardinia. The operations evaluated in this study include the Barego and Montego Mines and the Mineraria Silius S.p.A. fluorspar-barite operation (fig. 6). The Barego and Montego Mines are about 60 km west of the Silius operations, which is located about 50 km northeast of the main port city of Cagliari. All min- ing is underground. Barite at Barego is concentrated by jigging, while Montego uses flotation to produce a barite and lead concen- trate. All of the Barego concentrates are mud grade. About 75 pet of the Montego production is in the form of chemical and filler grades. All of the barite is consumed domestically. Silius ore is concentrated by heavy media and flotation, producing chemical- and mud-grade barite, lead, and fluorspar concentrates. Smaller Silius operations and small, privately owned mines operated by contractors also provide ore to Silius. A flotation mill serving all Silius operations is located in the village of Assemini. MEXICO Most of the production in Mexico has come from mines in northern Mexico. In the past, the country has been a net importer of barite with an estimated pre- 1982 consumption of about 550,000 to 600,000 mt/yr (18). With the post-1981 decline in drilling; however, the decrease in consumption (350,000 mt in 1984) has created a surplus. About 120,000 to 130,000 mt/yr has been exported to the United States because the mines are located nearer to U.S. markets than to Mexican markets. The operations evaluated include the underground Barita de Santa rosa (Barosa) Mine complex near Musquiz, Coahuila, and the open pit Barita de Sonora Mine and Cobachi deposit (developing) 80 km east of Hermosillo, Sonora (fig. 9). The latter two deposits are relatively close (170 km) to the port of Guyamas on the western coast. Other producing operations are located in the States of Guerrero, Nuevo Leon, and Pueblo; however, because of their small size, none of these were included in the study. The La Minita Mine (110,000 mt/yr) in Michoacan was not evaluated because of a lack of data at the time of the study. Demonstrated resources evaluated in Mexico amount to a little over 10 Mmt of in situ material containing a little over 8 Mmt barite (as BaSO„). This quantity would produce about 6.6 Mmt of +4.2 sp gr product. All deposits have a certain amount (up to about 50 pet) of direct shipping ore; in general, this requires some handcobbing. The lower grade ores are treated either by tabling, flotation, or a combina- tion of both. The barite projected for domestic use would probably come from the operations in the State of Sonora (Barita de Sonora and Cobachi) where the material could be railed to the port of Guyamas and shipped by boat to the drilling area, mostly near Campeche. Development at Cobachi was planned to start in 1984 with production in 1986; however, this has been delayed because of poor market conditions. MOROCCO Barite production in Morocco increased steadily from 1978 through 1982 (538,000 mt) and then decreased to 275,000 mt in 1983 because of the worldwide cutback in 12 LEGEND • City or town 500 ' 1,000 Scale, km tt Mine ▲ Deposit Figure 9.— Locations of barite operations in Mexico and the United States. drilling. Four mines were evaluated in Morocco with a com- bined total resource just over 10.7 Mmt ore containing about 8.6 Mmt barite. Production capacity of the mines evaluated is about 400,000 mt/yr. The mines evaluated include the Jbel Ihroud, Seksaoua, and Tessaout located in western Morocco and the Zelmu in the northeastern part of the coun- try (fig. 6). In recent years (since about 1978), from 40 to 60 pet of production was exported to the United States. Most of the remainder was destined for drilling in the North Sea. All of the barite produced is mud grade. The Jbel Ihroud Mine is located in the Ihroud Moun- tains of western Morocco about 90 km southeast of the port of Safi. The underground ore has been supplemented with reclaimed tailings from the older operations since 1979. A variable amount of selectively mined direct shipping ore is crushed and screened at the mine. The remainder of the ore is processed in a jig plant. The Seksaoua Mine is located a bout 160 km northeast of the port of Agadir, in the Western High Atlas Mountains. Mining is selective for high-grade ore which is upgraded by handsorting. The Tessaout Mine is a small (17,000 mt/yr) labor-intensive mine in which the resources are nearly depleted. The Zelmu Mine contains the largest resource in Mo- rocco; however, it is in a fairly remote area in northeastern Morocco. Mining is by open pit, and overburden is negligi- ble. The only processing required is crushing and screen- ing. The barite product is transported by truck-rail-truck to the port of Nador for shipment to the U.S. gulf coast and the North Sea. PAKISTAN Pakistan has been a minor producer of barite for a number of years with production of approximately 26,000 mt/yr. Nearly all of this is from the Gunga Mine in the State of Baluchistan, about 400 km north of Karachi (fig. 8). Pro- duction began in 1976. The product is ground at the near- by village of Kuhdyar and trucked to Karachi (400 km) for domestic use or export. PERU Since most of the production in Peru is controlled by vertically integrated U.S. companies, the majority (70 to 13 90 pet) is exported to the United States. The remainder has largely been shipped to Europe. Production in recent years has been in the order of 400,000 mt/yr, but dropped significantly in 1982-83 because of poor market conditions. By far, the majority of the pro- duction has come from the evaluated Graciela and Juanita Mines, which are operated as a Unit by Perubar. A small amount of barite is produced from the adjacent Minera Barmine property, which produces under contract to Perubar. Also included in the study was the undeveloped Chagla (Tingo Maria) deposit. The Graciela-Juanita Mines are located about 50 km east of Lima, while the Chagla deposit is about 500 km inland (fig. 7). The Graciela is an open pit mine and produces about 70 pet of the ore. The adjacent Juanita Mine, on the same structure, was converted to an underground operation in 1976. About 70 pet of the Juanita ore is direct shipping; the remainder is treated by flotation to recover barite, lead, and zinc. The Chagla deposit contains a significant amount of direct-shipping-grade ore, but the long shipping distance to a port has delayed development. SPAIN Barite production in Spain has been in the range of 50,000 to 60,000 mt/yr of concentrate in recent years. Nearly all of this has come from the underground Guillermin-San Fernando area in Cordoba Province, and the La Carolina area in Jaen State (fig. 6). The Gullermin area consists of the main Guillermin Mine and several small satellite mines (including the San Fernando). The majority of the production has historically been as chemical grade; however, because of problems with grade and contaminants, future production will probably be mud grade. Resources at La Carolina have been estimated at 5 Mmt of material containing about 20 pet BaS0 4 (15). Mining is by open pit; jig processing has been difficult because of the brittleness of the ore, which produces excessive fines dur- ing crushing. Future plans include flotation to improve the recovery. THAILAND Barite production in Thailand has been subject to fluc- tuations from year to year (as much as 80 pet). This is because of the dependence on the level of drilling in near- by areas (particularly Indonesia). This study evaluated nine mines, five located in the northern provinces 500 to 600 km from Bangkok and four in the south on the peninsula north of Malaysia (fig. 10). Total demonstrated ore resources are estimated at 14.7 Mmt. Of these, a little over 13.1 Mmt are located in the northern deposits. The individual deposit resources of the south ranged from about 100,000 to 600,000 mt, while in the north the range was about 1.5 to 4 Mmt. In terms of production capacity, the northern mines have a total capacity of over 206,000 mt/yr concentrates, while the capacity of those in the south is about 158,000 mt/yr. The southern mines are sometimes shut down becaues of unstable political environments in the mining areas. There have been comparatively few geological studies made on the barite deposits of Thailand. Some of the in- dividual deposits have been described in a report by Scholia (22), which is a translation of a report by the Thailand Department of Mineral Resources. In Thailand, much of the mining is still from surface outcrops, with development requirements of a few kilometers of rudimentary access road, a drill, dozer, loader, and a few small trucks. Mining involves clearing the under- brush and blasting and excavating the ore; generally there is little or no overburden removal. Mining commences on the outcrop and follows it below the surface by gophering when the enclosing rock stands without support. Beneficiation generally consists of crushing and selec- tive screening followed by a minor amount of handsorting. Where there is excessive clay adhering to the barite, trom- mels are used for screening, and sometimes washers are used to reject the fines. The product of the crushing, screen- ing, and washing is nearly always handpicked for the final removal of gangue minerals. The barite from the northern mines is hauled by truck and/or rail about 500 to 600 km to Ang Thong for transfer to river boats (lighters) for shipment to Bangkok (100 km). At Bangkok, most of the barite is loaded on ships for transport to grinding plants located on Bintan Island, Malaysia (near Singapore). The southern operations are usually trucked a shorter distance (30 to 80 km) to ports and ship-loaded for transport to Bintan Island or for export to other countries. Much of the barite production in Thailand is controlled through ownership, leasing, or long-term purchase agreements by major well-servicing companies. NL Baroid, IMCO Services, and Dresser Industries have grinding facilities on Bintan Island. • City of lown * Mir* Figure 10.— Locations of barite operations in Thailand. 14 UNITED KINGDOM Production in the United Kingdom has come primarily from a number of small mining operations or plants pro- cessing tailings from base metal mines; these small opera- tions were not evaluated. This study evaluated the Aber- feldy deposit in Scotland and the Derbyshire fluorspar- barite operation (fig. 6), owned by Laporte Industries Ltd. The Aberfeldy deposit is located in Tayside, Scotland, about 70 km north of Glasgow. This deposit was discovered in 1975 by The Institute of Geological Sciences and was leased by Dresser Industries Inc. in 1979. Resource estimates include "a few million tons" (1, p. 361), produc- tion potential of 150,000 mt/yr for at least 20 yr (1 7), and "at least 2 Mmt" (1, p. 415). Tentatively, the mine is planned to replace the production of Dresser's Ballynoe Mine in Ireland when it becomes depleted, possibly by 1990. Laporte's Derbyshire operation consists of an underground mine at Sallet Hole on the Longstone Edge vein system and the Cavendish mill near Baxewell, where flotation is used to recover lead, fluorspar, and barite. Its nearby Lady wash operation was placed on temporary care and maintenance in 1979 due to deteriorating ground con- ditions and rising mining costs. Major resources exist to the west in the undisturbed Hucklow Edge, and at depths below present haulage levels. UNITED STATES In this study, 31 operations (34 deposits) were in- vestigated in the United States. There has been minor pro- duction from Alaska, California, Montana, New Mexico, and Tennessee; however, deposits in these States were not evaluated since individual deposit resources were very small. The evaluated in situ resources in the United States amount to a little over 186 Mmt material containing about 54.5 Mmt barite (BaS0 4 ). Arkansas The two deposits included in this study are the McKnight (NL Baroid) and Fancy Hill (Milchem Inc.), located about 75 km west of Magnet Cove (fig. 9). The area is on the fringe of the Ouachita Mountains and generally is within the Ouachita National Forest. Both mines were shut down in 1982 because of a depressed market. The Fancy Hill Mine was briefly opened before activities were suspended, and the McKnight Mine produced on a small scale for about 3 yr. The Fancy Hill operation was developed to produce a flotation concentrate. For the purpose of this study, it is assumed that the flotation plant would be used for the McKnight ore as well. Georgia Barite has been produced in Georgia since 1916, when the Paga Mining Co. mine began operation near Cartersville in northwest Georgia. In 1926 the New River- side Ochre Co. began production at a mine located a few kilometers away (fig. 9). These mines have been producing nearly continuously since startup. Mining is on low-grade detrital deposits that occur over a relatively widespread area. Barite occurs mainly as residual concentrations in clay and as colluvial deposits. Production in recent years has approximated 30,000 to 35,000 mt/yr concentrates; all product is in the form of chemical- and filler-grade barite. The mineralized area in which the barite occurs covers over 400 km 2 . The main barite enriched areas are currently being mined. Total ore resources for the area used in the evaluation amount to nearly 25 Mmt containing about 2.2 Mmt BaS0 4 ; however, there are undoubtedly more resources since the mineralized belt has not been fully explored. The resources included in the evaluation amont to about 30-yr life at the current production level. Mining in both operations is by open pit. Beneficiation consists of washing and breaking to remove the clay adher- ing to the coarser particles, followed by screening. In the Paga mill, the washer product is size-reduced in rod and ball mills, then treated by flotation. The New Riverside mill utilizes jigging and magnetic separation as well as flota- tion and produces a slightly higher grade and lower iron product. Illinois Barite is recovered as a byproduct from three proper- ties located in the Illinois-Kentucky fluorspar district (fig. 9). The Barnett, Denton, and Henson Mines were produc- ing at the time of this study; however, Barnett and Hen- son were closed in 1985. All mines are underground; flota- tion is used to produce acid-grade fluorspar, chemical-grade barite, and lead and zinc concentrates. Missouri The nine barite deposits evaluated in Missouri are located in southeast Missouri in the same general area as the Viburnum lead belt (fig. 11). Barite in this area occurs as residual (detrital) ac- cumulation in a surficial clay horizon. The barite-rich zones occur irregularly throughout the area; the rich zones are normally spotted with pits from the earlier hand mining operations. The clay horizon is either flat or follows the gentle contour of the rolling hills and can vary in thickness from less than 1 m to about 7 m. Resources for evaluated Missouri deposits amount to about 91 Mmt of in situ material containing nearly 7 Mmt BaS0 4 . Grades vary from 6 to 10 pet. Because of low recoveries in beneficiation, about 4.6 Mmt would be pro- duced as concentrates. Production of the mud-grade barite began in the late 1920's. There was a considerable amount of expansion in the 1970's, particularly after 1978, because of an increase in drilling activity. In late 1982, the worldwide decline in drilling activity plus an increase of cheaper foreign imports caused virtually all of the operations to shut down. During 1983, there was some production from sockpiles, but no mine production was recorded. In late 1984, a few opera- tions producing chemical-grade barite and one mud-grade operation were resumed on a limited scale. Principal chemical-grade barite producers have been General Barite Co. and DeSoto Mining Co. Mud-grade barite has been pro- duced by Dresser Industries Inc., NL Baroid, and IMCO Services. Two grinding plants have been operated in the area, the Dresser Industries plant at Mineral Point and the NL Baroid plant at Cadet. In 1983, the plant at Cadet was being used to grind olivine for use in the Pea Ridge iron ore pelletizing facility. Mining is relatively simple since the deposits occur in unconsolidated material with little or no overburden. All 15 operations are essentially the same, except for differences in scale. Virtually all the beneficiation is by jigging. The material is broken up by rotary breakers, screened, and then processed in log washers and trommels to produce a jig feed. Recoveries are relatively low (50 to 60 pet), with most of the losses in the log washer fines. Recoveries in the coarser fraction (jig feed) average about 80 pet. The tailings con- tain generally 3 to 4 pet BaS0 4 . There has been some ex- perimental work done on the beneficiation of these tailings (27), but they have not been exploited commercially. A flotation mill to treat jig tailings from an operating plant (Apex-Mineral Point) was constructed by IMCO Ser- vices; however, because of the market depression, the plant was never operated. LEGEND • City or town / Richwoods 6 Cadet Artoof map 2 Kingston 7 Apex-Mineral Point 3 Stone Spring 8 Old Mines ) 4 Sun 9 Dresser No. 10 5 Dresser No. 4 Scale, km Figure 1 1 .—Locations of barite operations in Missouri. Nevada About 85 to 90 pet of U.S. barite production is from Nevada, where 16 mines and deposits were evaluated, with demonstrated resources amounting to nearly 58 Mmt of in situ ore containing over 40 Mmt barite (BaSOJ. Most of the barite occurs in northern Nevada in Elko and Lander Counties in the vicinity of Battle Mountain and Wells; other evaluated deposits are located to the south in Nye County (fig. 12). The major operations in Nevada are owned by in- tegrated well service companies, and all have been produc- ing for a relatively long time. NL Baroid produces from the Rossi-Queen Lode Mine complex and operates the Dumphy plant, which consists of a beneficiation plant and a 135,000-mt/yr fine grinding facility. IMCO Services operates the Mountain Springs Mine and beneficiation plant and has a 160,000-mt/yr grinding facility at Battle Mountain. The mine and mill are operated jointly by IMCO Services and FMC Corp. Milchem Inc. produces from the Argenta Mine and has a 165,000-mt/yr grinding plant near Battle Moun- tain. Dresser Industries operates the Greystone Mine and a 200,000-mt/yr-capacity grinding plant. The majority of the other operations, while they may have produced small amounts in earlier years, began pro- ducing significant quantities in the late 1970's; most of these operations were shut down in late 1982. Barite horizons occur in a belt up to about 35 km wide extending in a northeasterly direction across central Nevada. There are many small occurrences of barite throughout the extent of this belt, but the largest deposits are found in the previously mentioned Elko, Lander, and Nye Counties. A recent comprehensive report describes the geology and physical characteristics of all the Nevada barite deposits (20). Barite mining in Nevada is all by open pit. The over- burden is scraped where it is soft enough; otherwise, it is ripped or blasted. Collectively, about 20 pet of the over- burden is removed by scraping, about 45 pet is ripped, and the remainder is drilled and blasted. The ore is always drilled and blasted. The waste-to-ore ratio ranges between 2:1 and 8:1 and averages 4.7:1. The mines are generally located on ridges or hilltops where no nearby mill sites are available. Most plants are LEGEND 1 ■BlUrncrt 1 Jungle 9 Heavy Spar • City or town X Mine Mr* 2 Stormy CrMfc 10 Argento \»ev«o* 3 Big Ledge 4 Snoot* // Mountain Springs 12 Sreyrrone A Depot rt \J 5 Easy Miner a pas Hiqnwoy € ftoeei-Queen Lode /* Kay 7 Lakes IS Ann ?.....¥ no ■ 8 Fill) Creek /« Eaet Northumberland Figure 12.— Locations of barite operations in Nevada. 16 located at some distance from the mines. These distances vary from 1 km to 2 km, in the few instances where the mill can be sited near the mine, to nearly 50 km. Beneficiation is nearly all by jigging, although in a few cases tabling or flotation is used on part of the jig tailings to improve overall recovery. In one operation, flotation was designed for all the feed. All of the mines that came on stream in the late 1970's used jigging; some of these plants were semiportable. Since 1982, most of the production has been in direct shipping ore, or that which can be upgraded by crushing and selective screening. This study, however, is based on mining the total resource at its average grade; the prac- tice of selectively mining only the high-grade ore will more rapidly deplete that part of the resource and reduce the average grade of the deposit. In terms of contained BaS0 4 , about 25 pet of the resources evaluated are estimated to be of direct shipping grade. The market area from the Nevada barite is assumed to be primarily in New Orelans, LA, Houston, TX, and Oklahoma. The most economical rate, based on a minimum unit rail shipment of about 6,500 mt, approximates $36/mt to $41/mt. The Nye County deposits are at a freight disad- vantage in that the barite must be trucked about 300 km to a railhead. Washington Washington has had minor barite production in recent years, mostly from small deposits in the northeastern part of the State. Two deposits (Flagstaff Mountain and Bruce Creek) in Stevens County, northeastern Washington (fig. 9), were evaluated for this study. These were under develop- ment in early 1983. The deposits would be exploited in tandem and the ore would be processed in the Calhoun lead- zinc mill (American Zinc Co.), which as been adapted to barite flotation; the market would probably be the southern Canada drilling areas. ENGINEERING AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS Engineering parameters evaluated include type of mining and milling, size of operation, physical factors of the location, type and utilization of equipment, energy utilization, haulage and long-distance transportation, per- sonnel efficiency, recoveries, byproduct value, etc. Capital and operating costs were estimated for each mine and deposit based on average costs of exploiting the entire resource. Capital costs include exploration, mine development, mine equipment, beneficiation plant, in- frastructure support facilities, and a 60-day working capital reserve fund. Operating costs include total direct and in- direct costs of the operation, such as labor, operation, and maintenance supplies; overhead and administrative costs; and research and technical costs. Transportation costs included truck, rail, and ocean shipping costs and were assigned to transport each product to known market areas (major drilling areas); these are the U.S. gulf coast, the North Sea, Indonesia, and Middle Eastern countries. Fine grinding costs are not included in this study. These are add-on costs that are relatively standard in the market areas, averaging $15/mt to $20/mt. Grinding is usually per- formed by the well-servicing companies and independent contractors near the areas of consumption. Local currency exchange rates are also a factor in the results of the cost estimates. While production costs have been influenced by local inflation between 1982 (the year costs were obtained) and 1984 (the year of evaluation), the devaluation of foreign currencies in relation to the U.S. dollar has resulted in an apparent decline of these local costs in U.S. dollar terms. The impact of exchange factors are most significant in Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. An average cost of production in 1982 of U.S. $60/mt, for example, has dropped in these countries to U.S. $18.69/mt, $27.52/mt, and $25.75/mt, respectively, by 1984. Exchange rates used in this evaluation are shown in appendix B. CAPITAL COSTS Capital costs were estimated for representative opera- tions that have been developed since 1980 or that are planned for future production. These costs, in terms of both 1982 and 1984 U.S. dollars per annual metric ton of con- centrate, are shown in table 7. This indicates an apparent advantage of development in countries where the local cur- rency has lost strength in relation to the U.S. dollar since 1982. Even after inflation is taken into account, initial star- tup costs are declining in U.S. dollar terms. The higher development costs in the United States generally represent a greater amount of required preproduc- tion stripping; the higher capital costs for beneficiation facilities indicate a greater complexity of the plants because of lower grade feed material. India, Pakistan, and Thailand are not shown in table 7 because most have been in production over a number of years and the effect of undepreciated capital is not signifi- cant. In addition, the operations in India and Pakistan are Government-owned, and many services are supplied by the Government. Also in Thailand, mining is generally on sur- face exposures so that capital expenditures for mine develop- ment are minimal. Table 7.— Barite mining and beneficiation capital costs, by region (U.S. dollars per annual metric ton of barite concentrate capacity) Country or region Development M . inin 9 , Mine equipment plant United States: 1984 $5.60 $15.98 $6.89 Mexico: 1982 2.68 10.73 3.92 1984 2.27 7.02 2.89 Europe 1 and Morocco: 1982 2.31 7.69 5.89 1984 Z05 6£l 4.62 'Includes Belgium, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Available data includes only crushing-screening plants. Beneficiation Total capital $33.09 22.91 17.55 2.26 2 .51 $61.56 40.24 29.73 16.15 13.59 17 OPERATING COSTS Mining Open pit mining is used to mine approximately 88 pet of the demonstrated resources evaluted. In the United States, there has been some small-scale underground mining done for barite in the past, but with the exception of four underground Illinois fluorspar operations recover- ing byproduct barite, all mining is by open pit methods. Of the 39 non-U.S. mines and deposits evaluated, 25 are mined by open pit, 1 1 are underground, and 3 use both open pit and underground methods. In general, the barite ore occurs as well-defined units and has sharp contacts with the adjacent waste rock. Because of this, there is comparatively little dilution of the ore with barren country rock. In addition, the ore gener- ally occurs within calcareous rocks and requires relatively little mine roof support in underground mining. In fact, the relatively low unit value of the barite product would not allow for mining in ground conditions that required exten- sive support. Mining in the United States and Europe is generally highly mechanized. In low labor cost areas, high- grade ore horizons are mined manually or with only a small mount of equipment. In open pit mining, waste-to-ore ratios ranged from zero (no waste) to about 6:1. Open pit mining costs are shown by region in table 8. The U.S. deposits were segregated into hardrock, where ripping and blasting is required (Nevada, Arkansas, and Washington), and detrital, where little or no stripping is required and no ripping or blasting is needed (Georgia and Missouri). The stripping ratio for hardrock deposits averages between 4:1 and 5:1 for the U.S. mines and 2:1 and 3:1 for the non-U.S. mines. The per-ton cost difference between "ore plus waste" and "ore" is greatest for U.S. hardrock deposits, as a result of the higher stripping ratios. The mining cost per tone of ore for the detrital ores is the lowest of all operations, but because of the low-grade ores and low recoveries, these mines have the highest mining cost per ton of concentrate. Table 8. — Barite open pit mining costs, by region (January 1984 U.S. dollars per metric ton) Country or region °waste S 0re Concentrate Asia' $4.80 $5.95 $9.15 Europe 2 2.90 7.20 11.85 Mexico 1 .60 3.00 4.05 Morocco 3.10 4.05 4.60 South America 3 7.45 10.15 11.15 United States: Detrital 4 1.10 1.45 19.35 Hardrock 5 U30 10.45 17.80 1 1ndia, Pakistan, and Thailand 2 Belgium, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. 3 Brazil, Chile, and Peru. '•Georgia and Missouri. 5 Arkansas, Nevada, and Washington. Mining costs for underground mines are generally higher than the open pit costs and range from $8/mt to $20/mt ore and from $10/mt to $45/mt concentrate. On a weighted-average basis, the underground mining costs are $12.34/mt ore ($18.60/mt concentrate). Beneficiation Barite is sold both as direct shipping and as beneficiated material. Direct shipping ore is sometimes upgraded slightly by crushing and selective screening or a small amount of handsorting. When crushed, the direct shipping ore is generally size reduced to 10 to 25 cm. In handsorting, usually about 1 to 5 pet of the material is sorted out as waste. Handsorting is generally not cost effective if more than 5 pet of the material has to be rejected. The most common type of beneficiation is jigging; in some operations tabling or flotation is used to treat jig tail- ings to improve recoveries, and in a few cases flotation is used as a primary method if the mineral liberation size is too fine for gravity methods. In terms of total capacity of the deposits evaluated, 26 pet is direct shipping, handsorted, or upgraded by selective screening; 48 pet is treated by jigs or other gravity methods; and 26 pet is upgraded by flota- tion. Detrital ores do not require crushing, only "breaking" to loosen the adhering clays. Jigging is normally used on ores of higher grade, usually above 70 pet BaS0 4 ; however, some jigging operations recover barite from ore grades as low as 60 pet, and even as low as 20 pet from one mine (with some sacrifice of recoveries). The feed to the jig is usually a maximum 1 cm to 2 cm in size, and the lower particle size limit is about 0.7 mm. Tables or spirals are generally used from 0.7 mm down to about 0.1 mm. There are some cases where old jig and base metal flotation tailings are being reclaimed by flotation treatment. Barite is also recovered by flotation as a byproduct of ongoing base metal and fluorspar flotation plants. Operating costs are generally in the range of $0.15/mt to $1.50/mt ore feed for handsorting or crushing, $2.50/mt to $5/mt for jigging, and $4.50/mt to $9/mt for the combin- ed processes (jigs, tables, and spirals) and flotation. Averge beneficiation costs range from a low of $0.62/mt concentrate for direct shipping ore and handsorting methods, to $13/mt for flotation concentrates. Cumulative quantity, feed, product, and cost data for the 60 evaluated deposits where barite is the primary product are shown in table 9. In this table, the average grades and recoveries for the jigging method are weighted by the low BaS0 4 grade (6 to 8 pet) of the Missouri detrital deposits. For jigging at the hardrock deposits, the grades and recoveries average about 65 pet and 75 pet, respectively. Beneficiation costs by region are shown in table 10. Table 9.— Barite beneficiation operating costs, by method 'Deposits where barite is the primary commodity. 2 Refers to recovery of contained BaSQ 4 . Beneficiation method Number of plants 1 Annual ore feed, 10 3 mt BaS0 4 feed grade, pet Mill recovery, 2 pet Total product, 10 3 mt Weighted-average cost, $/mt Ore Product Run-of-mine, hand sort, crush Jig, gravity 19 26 15 2,120 9,872 3,986 78.7 31.2 49.2 96.6 65.5 81.1 1,791 2,582 1,795 $0.52 2.89 5.88 $0.62 11.04 Flotation 13.06 Total or weighted average 60 15,978 42.0 73.5 6,168 3.32 8.60 18 Table 10.— Barite beneficiation operating costs, by region (January 1984 U.S. dollars per metric ton) Country or region Ore Concentrate Asia 1 $1.48 $2.83 Europe 2 4.79 9.24 Morocco .57 .65 Mexico 2.58 3.44 South America 3 6.24 6.88 United States: Detrital" 1 .28 30.53 Hard rock" 6^07 10.33 1 lndia, Pakistan, and Thailand. 2 Belgium, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. 'Brazil, Chile, and Peru. "Georgia and Missouri. s Arkansas, Nevada, and Washington. Personnel Regional personnel costs, as a percentage of combined mining and milling costs, productivities, and labor rates, are shown in table 11. The percentage of personnel costs was calculated for all personnel (i.e., labor, management, and administrative). The labor rates are an estimated weighted average of the regions and include fringe benefits. This table indicates that personnel costs generally comprise from about one-third to three-fourths of the mining and mill- ing operating costs for the operations evaluated. The higher productivity figures for the United States and Europe are offset by higher labor rates, thus decreasing the overall im- pact of productivity. (Refer back to tables 8 and 10.) Table 1 1 .—Barite mining and beneficiation personnel productivity and labor rates, by region Personnel Annual Personnel costs, productivity, labor Country or pet of mining mt/worker-shift rate per region and benefi- Concen - worker,' ciation costs Qre ^™g n 1Q3$ ' Europe 2 52 11.8 6.3 15.2 India and Pakistan 60 1.6 1.6 1.2 Mexico 34 7.4 5.4 6.3 Morocco 47 2.9 2.5 1.6 South America 3 55 3.8 2.9 3.8 Thailand 74 5.7 2.9 .6 United States: Detrital" 49 72.0 3.6 28.0 Hardrocks 52 13.9 8.3 31.0 1 Labor only including fringe benefits in 1982 U.S. dollars; does not include clerical, technical, or supervisory personnel. 2 Belgium, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. 3 Brazil, Chile, and Peru. "Georgia and Missouri. 5 Arkansas, Nevada, and Washington. TRANSPORTATION Transportation is a major cost in the distribution of barite. Most of the barite must be transported comparatively long distances either by rail, as in the United States, or by ocean shipping for most of the non-U. S. mines. Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma are the largest users of barite, accounting for nearly 70 pet of U.S. consumption in 1983. Transportation distances from Nevada to Houston, New Orleans, and Oklahoma average about 3,500, 3,700, and 2,200 km, respectively. Rail shipping costs from major shipping points in Nevada (Battle Mountain, Carlin, Dum- phy, and Wells— which would service operations in Elko and Lander Counties) to the gulf coast areas are estimated at $36/mt to $41/mt for unground barite. Shipping costs from the Nye County operations are estimated at $45/mt to $50/mt, because of the necessary 300-km truck haul to the railhead. Shipping of ground barite to these States is pro- hibitive, generally costing an additional $15/mt to $20/mt for the same quantity of material. Ocean shipping to market areas is less expensive than U.S. rail shipping to the gulf coast. Selected estimated ocean shipping rates for 1982 are shown in table 12. As estimated in this study, shipment to the U.S. gulf ports from points in South America and Morocco would be no more than $12/mt. In early 1985, freight rates were down and shipments of 20,000 to 25,000 mt of barite were reported as low as $7/mt from Morocco to the gulf coast. From Thailand to the gulf coast, shipping costs are estimated at $20/mt to $25/mt. The shipping rates from China were reported at $20/mt to $24/mt in 1982 (26). Table 12.— Selected barite ocean shipping costs (26) Cost, Destination and country of origin 1982 $/mt To Mexico from India 24 To the North Sea from Morocco 10-12 To U.S. gulf coast from— Chile 8-10 China 20-24 India 16-17 PRODUCTION COST SUMMARY The weighted-average percentage distribution of the elements of production costs for non-U.S. and U.S. barite properties grouped by region is shown in table 13; weighted- average cost elements for mud-grade operations only are shown by region in figure 13. All costs are in terms of U.S. dollars per metric ton of recoverable barite concentrate. KEY CD ID * UJ Asia Morocco Latin Europe United America States Figure 13.— Regional weighted-average total cost of produc- tion for primary barite mud-grade concentrates. 19 Miscellaneous costs represent that portion of the average total cost not included in mining and milling operating costs or transportation costs. This includes the cost of capital recovery, loan interest payments, taxes, and royalties. Byproduct revenues were credited against the miscellaneous portion. Total costs represent achievement of a 0-pct DCFROR. The Asian countries and Morocco have the lowest pro- duction costs at $32/mt to $40/mt concentrate. These coun- tries benefit from low labor costs; most of the production is direct shipping ore, with minimal handsorting and crushing as the only beneficiation costs. However, some deposits in Morocco and deposits in northern Thailand have high truck and rail costs to transport concentrates from the interior to the port for export. The weighted-average total cost ($43/mt concentrate) for the Latin American countries was influenced by the higher cost Mexican operations; costs at most operations in Brazil, Chile, and Peru were between $32/mt and $37/mt concen- trate. European countries experience higher labor costs and higher beneficiation costs, bringing the weighted-average total cost to just under $48/mt concentrate. Operations in the United States have the highest weighted-average total cost of production ($71/mt concen- trate) of all properties evaluated because of higher labor costs, lower ore grades, and long distances to market areas. Table 13.— Percentage distribution of barite production costs (Number of mines and deposits) Production cost range 0-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 71-80 pet pet pet pet pet pet pet pet Mining: Non-United States 3 10 12 10 2 1 1 United States 3 13 5 5 1 2 2 Total 3 13 25 15 8 2 3 2 Beneficiation: Non-United States . 21 6 7 1 2 2 United States 1 13 9 6 2 Total 22 19 16 7 4 2 Transportation: To port: Non-United States 18 6 6 3 1 3 2 To railhead: United States 30 1 Total 48 7 6 3 1 3 2 To market: Non-United States 5 7 10 10 7 United States . 8 1 6 4 6 6 Total 13 8 16 14 13 6 Miscellaneous: 1 Non-United States . 20 18 1 United States 1 20 9 1 Total 21 38 9 1 1 1 Miscellaneous costs represent that portion of total costs, at a breakeven (0-pct) DCFROR, not included in mining, beneficiation, or transportation costs. Breakeven allows for recovery of capital costs but no profit. AVAILABILITY Of the 66 barite operations evaluated, 52 recovered only a drilling mud-grade barite product; 5 recovered several grades of barite products; and 9 recovered only chemical and/or filler grades. Byproducts, such as lead, zinc, silver, and fluorspar, were recovered from 10 operations. MUD-GRADE BARITE The total availability of mud-grade barite recoverable as concentrates (110 Mmt) is shown in figure 14. As il- lustrated, the costs including the 15-pct DCFROR increases more toward the high end of the curve where undeveloped 0-pct DCFROR -*- RECOVERABLE BARITE, Mmt ■1 ■ — I 1 i i K» - ! _ 6 i — J *» 90 r--! - 1 2 75 United stoles. r J - S C ,--.'' "> 60 en Non-US . v - u -1 «5 ^ O r 1 -^ 30 5 5 10 58 SB 48 SB 60 ■•To Figure 14.— Cost and total availability of mud-grade barite at 0-pct and 15-pct DCFROR. RECOVERABLE BARITE, Mmt Figure 15.— Comparison of total availability of mud-grade barite from U.S. and non-U.S. operations at a 15-pct DCFROR. operations are more prevalent. As previously explained, established operations have already recovered initial capital expenditures and have fewer costs to cover prior to making the 15-pct DCFROR. Note that the total costs represent long-run constant 1984 dollar values that include the ex- ploitation of the total demonstrated resource. A comparison of the U.S. and non-U.S. resources available at 15-pct DCFROR is shown in figure 15. The U.S. resources total just over 42 Mmt, and the foreign operations contribute almost 68 Mmt. A comparison of the availability of U.S. and non-U.S. mud-grade operations at various price levels (depicted in figure 15) is shown in table 14. About 40 pet of the U.S. 20 Table 14.— Comparison of available barite concentrates from U.S. and non-U. S. producing mines and nonproducing deposits 1 (Million metric tons) a , . , . no*/ .? Up to Up to Up to Up to Up to Av total cost.... US$/mtz.... $ K 60 $ K 75 $ K 90 $ !f 05 $ lf 20 U.S.: Producing mines 16,957 17,131 17,131 17,131 17,131 Nonproducing deposits .. . 9,927 14,473 21,862 25,220 Non-U.S.: Producing mines 53,390 57,462 60,596 60,861 61,134 Nonproducing deposits . . . 2,000 6,652 6,652 6,652 6,652 Grand total 72,347 91,172 98,852 106,506 110,137 'Includes the 60 mines and deposits where barite is the principal commodity. 2 Average total cost includes all costs to deliver concentrates to market areas and includes a 15-pct DCFROR; table cumulates at increasing costs. resources are available at an average total production cost of $60/mt, whereas 79 pet of the foreign resources are available at this average total cost. CHEMICAL- AND FILLER-GRADE BARITE 8 15-pct DCFROR ^_.J P ' Opel DCFROR RECOVERABLE BARITE, Mmt Figure 16.— Cost and total availability of chemical- and filler- grade barite at 0-pct and 15-pct DCFROR. The total availability from 14 operations proposed to recover unground chemical- and filler-grade barite is shown in figure 16. This illustration includes curves representing the 0-pct (breakeven) and 15-pct DCFROR. Market prices for products were averaging between $80/mt and $165/mt in early 1984, and all of the evaluated tonnage recovered was potentially available below $150/mt, including a 15-pct DCFROR. Nearly 43 pet (2.3 Mmt) could potentially be pro- duced for less than $95/mt, an average U.S. market price in 1984. SUMMARY Since over 90 pet of the barite produced is used as drill- ing mud, barite production levels vary according to the amount of oil and gas well drilling activity. As of January 1984, demonstrated resources for evaluated properties amount to about 130 Mmt contained BaSO,; this could produce approximately 115 Mmt concen- trates. With the addition of 98 Mmt of inferred resources, the total identified resource is about 213 Mmt. As previously stated, resource estimates based on available data are con- sidered to be conservative. Because of an extremely fluc- tuating market, most mining companies do not explore beyond a few years of production. The United States will continue to rely heavily on im- ports in the future. Supply interruptions from individual countries would probably only affect the market in the short term, since there is such a broad production base (about 35 countries). Mining and beneficiation of barite is relatively simple, and production levels often fluctuate widely depend- ing on demand in the drilling industry. If capacity were lost in one area of the world, it would be fairly easily compen- sated for by production increases in other areas. For exam- ple, Thailand's production in the southern region is inter- mittent as a result of political unrest, but this does not significantly impact the market in that area. Although China is the largest producer of barite, the United States produces the largest tonnage of the market economy countries (MEC's), followed by Morocco, Peru, Mex- ico, India, and Chile. China's production is available delivered to MEC's at economic prices, and has gradually taken over portions of the market previously held by other countries. China was not included in the study because of the lack of available data at the time of the study (1982). Mining costs average 10 to 40 pet of total costs for 57 of the 66 properties evaluated. Beneficiation costs are fairly uniform for run-of-mine, handsorting, and crushed ores, at less than 10 pet of total costs. Costs for jigging and flota- tion methods were higher; but overall, beneficiation costs were less than 30 pet of total costs for 80 pet of the opera- tions evaluated. The cost of transportation to the port of export, or railhead (United States), were less than 10 pet of total cost for 48 of the operations, but the transportation cost to market areas for all 66 properties ranged up to 60 pet of total costs. Of the 66 barite operations evaluated, 52 recovered drill- ing mud-grade products, 5 recovered several barite prod- ucts, and 9 recovered only chemical and filler grades. In- cluding a 15-pct DCFROR, approximately 59 pet of the mud- grade barite is potentially available below $60/mt. Likewise, nearly 43 pet of the chemical-grade barite is potentially available below $95/mt. All of the chemical-grade concen- trates evaluated could be recovered at costs below $150/mt. The 1984 barite production capacity levels estimated for producing mines evaluated in the study totaled about 3.2 Mmt, which is approximately equal to the 1984 produc- tion reported for these countries, or about 82 pet of the total 1984 MEC production of nearly 3.4 Mmt. Total world capa- city estimated for 1984 was 7.8 Mmt. Even if the United States produces at capacity, it can- not meet its own demand. In 1984, U.S. apparent consump- tion was about 2.6 Mmt of barite concentrates, and 1.6 Mmt (61 pet) of that was imported. About 52 pet of the U.S. resources, currently considered marginal, were in produc- tion during the 1979-82 period of high demand for drilling- mud grades. Most of these operations are now shut down; however, they could resume production with a relatively short preproduction period. The United States will continue to depend upon other nations, primarily China, India, Morocco, Mexico, and Peru, for a percentage of its barite needs. Between 1979 and 1983, 21 U.S. imports represented 48 pet of domestic consumption. Competition from lower cost imports make long transpor- tation distances from Nevada, where the majority of the domestic resources are located, difficult to overcome. The current (1984) strength of the U.S. dollar causes the costs in certain countries to appear lower than may be ex- pected. While most currencies have declined in value against a strong U.S. dollar, Brazil, Peru, and Mexico have seen the greatest decline in their currency values over the last few years. Devaluation will lower prices proportionately on imports from countries experiencing the devaluation. REFERENCES 1. A.C.A. Howe International Ltd. Mineral Exploration in the U.K. Min. Mag., v. 147, No. 5, 1982, pp. 359-361, 415. 2. American Petroleum Institute. API Specifications for Oil- Well Drilling Fluid Materials. API Spec. 13A, 1981, pp. 2-13. 3. Ampian, S. G. Barite. Ch. in BuMines Minerals Yearbook 1983, v. 1, p. 121. 4. Barite. Ch. in Mineral Facts and Problems, 1985 Edi- tion. BuMines B 675, 1985, pp. 65-74. 5. Berthoumieux, G. The Industrial Minerals of France. Pro- ceedings of the Third Industrial Minerals International Congress (Paris, Mar. 13-15, 1980), Ind. Miner. (London), 1980, p. 17. 6. Brown and Root Development, Inc. Development of Engineer- ing and Cost Data for Foreign Antimony and Barite Properties (con- tract J0255017). BuMines OFR 53-85, 1984, 31 pp., NTIS PB85-202984. 7. Bureau de Recherches Geologique et Mines. Development of the Barite Deposit at Chaillac, France. Company Brochure, 1978, p. 2. 8. Castelli, A. V. Barite. Eng. and Min. J., v. 185, No. 3, 1984, p. 93. 9. Davidoff, R. L. Supply Analysis Model (SAM): A Minerals Availability System Methodology. BuMines IC 8820, 1980, 45 pp. 10. Engineering and Mining Journal. Markets. V. 185, No. 2, Feb. 1984, p. 27. 11. Geological Survey of India. Volcanogenic Bedded Barytes, Mangampeta, Andhra Pradesh, India. June 12, 1982, p. 4. 12. Griffiths, J. Hellenic Industrial Minerals. Ind. Miner. (Lon- don), No. 208, Jan. 1985, p. 25. 13. Industrial Minerals (London). Freights. No. 192, May 1984, p. 53. 14. 15. 16. .. Prices. No. 191, July 1984, p. 81. .. Unibario's Andalucian Jig. No. 172, Aug. 1982, p. 38. No. 211, Apr. 1985, p. 83-89. 17. Mining Journal (London). Mining Annual Review. June 1982, p. 118. 18. Mining Magazine. Open Pit Barytes Mining at Ballynoe, Ireland. V. 184, No. 3, Mar. 1983, p. 194. 19. Murty, M. S. Barytes Development in Cudappah. Indian Min. and Eng. J., v. 20, No. 10, 1982, p. 17. 20. Papke, K. G. Barite in Nevada. NV Bur. Mines and Geol. Bull. 98, 1984, 125 pp. 21. Pettifer, L. The Industrial Minerals of Belgium. Ind. Miner. (London), No. 160, Sept. 1981, p. 41. 22. Scholia, P. Mines and Mineral Deposits of Thailand. Thailand Dep. Miner. Resour., Bull. 5, 1975; Engl, transl., 1981, pp. 28-46. Available upon request from J. S. Coffrnan, BuMines, Denver, CO. 23. Smith, M. Industrial Minerals of Ireland. Ind. Miner. (Lon- don), No. 166, Mar. 1982, p. 39. 24. U.S. Bureau of Mines. Minerals Yearbooks, 1979-84. Chapter on Barite. 25. U.S. Bureau of Mines and the U.S. Geological Survey. Prin- ciples of a Resource/Reserve Classification of Minerals. U.S. Geol. Surv. Circ. 831, 1980, 11 pp. 26. Watson, I. Barites, U.S. Drilling Downturn Weighs Heavily on the Market. Ind. Miner. (London), No. 183, Dec. 1982, pp. 21-54. 27. Wharton, H. M. Barite Ore Potential of Four Tailings Ponds in the Washington County Barite District, MO Geol. Surv. and Water Resour., Rep. Inv. 53, 1972, 99 pp. 28. World Mining. Garrot - Chaillac Will Mine the 8,000,000-ton Rossignol Barite Deposit. V. 28, No. 9, Aug. 1975, p. 84. 22 APPENDIX A.— METHODOLOGY The Bureau of Mines is developing a continuously evolv- ing methodology for the analysis of long-run mineral resource availability. An integral part of this system is the supply analysis model (SAM) (9) developed by personnel of the Bureau's Minerals Availability Field Office. This in- teractive computer system is a mathematical tool for analyz- ing the effects of various parameters upon the economic > analysis of mineral deposits. COST ESTIMATION For each operation included in this evaluation, capital expenditures were calculated for exploration, acquisition, development, mine plant and mine equipment, and mill con- struction and equipment. The capital expenditures for the different mining and processing facilities include working capital and the costs of mobile and stationary equipment, construction, engineering, and infrastructure. Infrastruc- ture is a broad category that includes costs for access and haulage facilities, ports, water facilities, power supply, and personnel accommodations. Working capital is a revolving cash fund required for operating expenses such as labor, supplies, insurance, and taxes. All costs were in U.S. dollar terms. The initial capital costs for producing or past produc- ing mines and developed deposits have been depreciated starting in the actual investment year. The undepreciated balance has been treated as a capital investment in 1984, the base year for this evaluation. Reinvestments will vary according to capacity, production life, and age of the facilities. Where appropriate, all costs have been updated to 1984 U.S. dollars according to local currency factors and individual country inflation indices, weighted propor- tionately by the impact of labor, energy, and capital in the barite industry on a countrywide basis. After production parameters and costs for the develop- ment of barite deposits were established, the SAM was used to perform various economic evaluations pertaining to the potential availability of drilling mud and chemical grades of barite. The SAM system is a comprehensive economic evaluation simulator that is used to determine the constant- dollar long-run price at which the primary commodity 1 must be sold to recover all costs of production, given a prespecified discounted-cash-flow rate of return (DCFROR) on invest- ment, less all byproduct revenues. The DCFROR is defin- ed as that rate which makes the present value of all cur- rent and future revenues equal to the present value of all current and future costs of production. For this study, constant-dollar real rates of return on investment of both pet (breakeven) and 15 pet were specified. The rate of 15 pet was considered the minimum sufficient to attract new capital to the industry. TAXES The SAM system contains a separate tax records file for each State and country that includes all the relevant tax parameters under which a mining firm would operate. These tax parameters are applied to each mineral deposit under evaluation with the implicit assumption that each deposit represents a separate corporate entity. In reality, properties belonging to the same corporation would have certain tax advantages not assumed for this evaluation. Other items accounted for include standard deductibles such as depreciation, depletion, deferred expenses, investment tax credits, and tax loss carryforwards. The SAM also con- tains a separate file of economic indexes to allow for up- dating all cost estimates. COMMODITY PRICES Price files are maintained in the SAM for all com- modities that will be relevant to the availability analyses, and all commodities recovered in the analyses are con- sidered to be marketable. For operations recovering commodities other than barite, set prices were established, and any resulting revenues (credits) were deducted from the total revenues required to cover all costs at the prespecified DCFROR (0 pet or 15 pet). The revenues remaining after removal of byproduct revenues were the total barite revenues. The byproduct commodity prices used in this study are shown in table A-l. In order to compare the average total cost and availabil- ity of each barite product where a mine produced both mud- grade and chemical-grade barite, the total barite revenues determined were apportioned between the barite products according to the 1985 market price differential 2 for each product. The price proportions allow revenues to be divided be- tween coproducts according to their relative market value, rather than assigning a price for one barite product and determining a price for the other. In the United States, for example, unground mud-grade barite was assigned the fac- tor 0.60 (corresponding to the price of $60/mt), while unground chemical and filler grades were given a factor of 0.95 (price of $95/mt). This would result in revenues being split such that the mud-grade revenues determined were approximately 63 pet of the chemical- and filler-grade revenues. AVAILABILITY CURVES Detailed cash-flow analyses are generated with the SAM system for each preproduction and production year of a mine or deposit beginning with the initial year of analysis (1984). Upon completion of the individual analyses for each deposit, all properties were simultaneously analyzed and aggregated into an availability curve. The availability of each barite product recovered from a deposit is presented as a function of the total cost of pro- duction associated with that product from each deposit. Availability curves are constructed as aggregations of the 'For this evaluation, all barite products were considered to be primary; thus, revenues were proportioned according to the relative value of each product. There is further discussion on price proportioning in the Commodity Prices section of this appendix. 2 For modeling purposes and comparison between operations, this evalua- tion assumes that a relationship exists between market prices and the average total cost of production. 23 total amount of commodity potentially available from each of the evaluated operations, ordered from the deposits hav- ing the lowest average total cost per unit of production to those having the highest. Certain assumptions are inherent in these curves. First, all deposits will produce at the estimated or proposed capa- city used in this analysis throughout the life of the deposit. Second, each operation will be able to sell all of its output at the determined total cost and obtain at least the minimum specified rate of return. Byproducts are con- sidered to be sold at the prices listed in table A-l. Third, all preproduction development of all undeveloped deposits began in January 1984. Table A-1 .—Byproduct prices used in economic evaluations (10) Commodity Aggregate, limestone per mt . Fluorspar: European: Acid-grade per mt . Metallurgical-grade per mt . U.S.: Acid-grade per mt . Metallurgical-grade per mt . Gold per tr oz . Lead per lb . Silver per tr oz . Zinc per lb . Price, January 1984 $3.75 110.00 80.00 171.00 125.00 370.89 .25 8.18 .49 24 APPENDIX B.— OWNERSHIP OF BARITE PROPERTIES Country, state, and deposit Owner Belgium: Fleurus NL Baroid (Division of NL Industries Inc.); Belgian Government. Brazil: Camamu Baroid Pigmina Industrial e Comercial S.A. (subsidiary of NL Industries Inc.). Chile: Baritex-Resguardo Cia. Minera Baritex (Baritex); Cia. Minera Resguardo (Resguardo). France: Barytine de Chaillac Kali-Chemie AG (Federal Republic of Germany). Rossignol Societe Industrielle du Centre (SIC). Germany, Federal Republic of: Clara Sachtleben Bergbau GmbH (subsidiary of Metallgesellschaft AG). Dreislar Do. Greece: Mykonos Mykobar Mykonos Mykobar Mining Co. (subsidiary of Dresser Industries Inc.). India: Mangampet Andhra Pradesh Mining Corp. (a state government company). Tiffin Tiffin Barytes, Asbestos and Paints, Ltd. Ireland: Ballynoe Magcobar (Ireland) Ltd. (subsidiary of Dresser Industries Inc.). Italy: Barego Bariosarda Co. (Sardinia) (state-owned company). Mineraria Silius Mineraria Silius S.p.A. Montego Bariosarda Co. Mexico: Barita de Santa Rosa (Barosa) IMCO Services Div., Halliburton Co.; the Martinez family. Barita de Sonora Barita de Sonora, S.A. de C.V. (a government company). Cobachi Minera Baucarit S.A. de C.V. and FMC Corp.; Protexa S.A. Morocco: Jbel Ihroud Cie. Marocaine des Barytes (COMABAR). Seksaoua S.A. Cherifienn d'Etudes Minieres (SACEM). Tessaout Societe Maorocaine de Travoux et d'Exploitation (SOMATREX). Zelmu Cie. Maorocaine des Barytes (COMABAR). Pakistan: Gunga Bolan Barytes Ltd. (joint venture of Baluchistan Government and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd. (PPL). Peru: Chagla (Tingo Maria) Baramine (last known owner). Graciela-Juanita and Minera Barmine Perubar (NL Industries, Inc.); the workers (Gracieia-Juanita); Minera Baratina S.A. (Peru) (Minera Barmine). Spain: Gullermin-San Fernando Mina de Baratina S.A. La Carolina IMCO Services (purchased from Unibario, late 1984). Thailand: Attbar-Thung Wa American Thai Barite Co. Ltd. (subsidiary of NL Industries). Ban Hin Khao P&S Mining Co. Ltd. (Thailand). Khao Mai Phai Do. Nidhi Nidhi Mining Co. Ltd. (Thailand) Oriental Gold IMCO Services and Mr. Suntat Suksti (Bangkok). Siam Barite Universal Mining Co. Ltd. (Thailand) (owner); American Thai Barite Co. Ltd. (leasee). STA STA Mining Co. Ltd. (Thailand). Tip Tip Mining Co. Ltd. (Thailand). United Kingdom: Aberfeldy Dresser Industries Inc. Derbyshire Laporte Industries Ltd. United States: Arkansas: Fancy Hill-McKnight Milchem Inc. (Fancy Hill); NL Baroid (McKnight). Georgia: New Riverside New Riverside Ochre Co. Paga Paga Mining Co. (Div. of Cyprus Thompson Weinman Co. Inc.). Illinois: Barnett Ozark-Mahoning Co. Denton Do. Henson Do. Missouri: Apex-Mineral Point IMCO Services Cadet NL Baroid, (Div. of NL Industries Inc.). Dresser No. 4 Dresser Industries Inc. Dresser No. 10 Do. Kingston DeSoto Mining Co. (operator); Pfizer Co. Inc. (owner). Old Mines General Barite Co. Inc. Richwoods DeSoto Mining Co. (operator), Pfizer Co., Inc. (owner). Stone Spring NL Baroid. Sun General Barite Co. Inc. Nevada: Ann Privately owned. Argenta Milchem Inc. East Northumberland All Minerals Inc. Easy Miner A. W. Arnold and Associates Fish Creek New Park Resources. Greystone Dresser Industries Inc. Heavy Spar New Park Resources. Kay Chromalloy Corp. Lakes NL Baroid. Mountain Springs FMC Corp. (resources); IMCO Services (processing). P&S Standard Slag. Rossi-Queen Lode NL Baroid. Snoose-Big Ledge-Jungle Chromalloy Corp. Stormy Creek Old Soldier Minerals Co. Washington: Flagstaff Mountain — Bruce Creek C. E. Minerals Div., Combustion Engineering Co. 25 APPENDIX C— EXCHANGE RATES PER U.S. DOLLAR AND COMPARISON OF COSTS BETWEEN 1982 AND 1984 FOR COUNTRIES EVALUATED Country Local ' currency Brazil Cruziero Peru Sole Mexico Peso Chile . . do Greece Drachma Spain Pesato Morocco Dirham France Franc United Kingdom Pound Ireland . .do Italy Lira Pakistan Rupee India . . do Federal Republic of Germany Mark Thailand Baht Local currency/US $ 1982 $60/mt converted Change, 1982 to 1982 1984 to 1984 1984, pet 179.510 577.040 $18.66 -221 697.600 1,625.100 25.76 -133 54.985 120.094 27.47 -118 50.909 78.842 38.74 -55 66.803 88.064 45.51 -32 109.860 143.430 45.96 -31 6.023 7.111 50.82 -18 6.572 7.610 51.82 -16 .571 .659 51.99 -15 .703 .801 52.66 -14 1 ,352.500 1,518.800 53.43 -12 11.847 13.117 54.19 -11 9.455 10.099 56.17 -7 2.427 2.553 57.04 -5 23.000 23.000 60.00 ft M.S. ilovci uncut Print ill); OlMcc : l!'«7 I 7(1- 7<>r>/!i I MM ll98 r V 336 <. 5 ° * ' o *' ^S A^ *«,.»• A <, *^T* A* ^> *••»• *••»• A <* *'7.«' A v > > % >°% ^ ^ ^ <, t ,f ^ ^ ,0^ o ' „ ^ ^ J 3 ^ : -r ^ X O "<* .&* ■liil! 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