Baryte, South Africa, The Republic of

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Can you help make this a better article? What good localities have we missed? Can you supply pictures of better specimens than those we show here? Can you give us more and better information about the specimens from these localities? Can you supply better geological or historical information on these localities?


Baryte, South Africa, the Republic of
BaSO₄ Orthorhombic
Here will go a good picture of a Baryte from South Africa and general remarks about the Baryte from this country. Here are some url's to some of the better South African Baryte specimens here on Mindat that can be considered for inclusion in the article. These, in most cases are just for temporary use until we can get images of the much better specimens that are almost certainly out there. We should also consider that there are probably localities out there with fine specimens that are not even mentioned on Mindat. Also in some instances there are sometimes pictures on Mindat, of specimens from a locality, but they were so ratty that I did not include them here, but there may also be really good specimens from there that we should talk about in this article.


Baryte
South Africa
Wessels Mine (Wessel's Mine), Hotazel, Kalahari manganese fields, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
[www.mindat.org]


Baryte
South Africa
N'Chwaning II Mine, N'Chwaning Mines, Kalahari manganese fields, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
[www.mindat.org]


Baryte
South Africa
Nababeep mine, Okiep Copper District, Namaqualand, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
[www.mindat.org]


Here are some notes about Baryte from South Africa that may be useful to whoever writes this article.


South Africa, The Republic of.
Kalahari Manganese field, Langdon, Hotazel, Wessels, N’Chwaning 1 & 2 Mines. Euhedral Barite crystals are present at the Langdon, Hotazel, Wessels, N’Chwaning I and ll mines. The small, tabular crystals from Langdon and Hotazel are water-clear. Bigger crystals are fairly common at N’Chwaning l and ll, where the tabular crystals reach a size of 10 cm on edge. Wessels has produced prismatic crystals 16 cm long. Most commonly white or colorless, the barite is sometimes pale blue and rarely with a yellow tinge; inclusions and coatings of other minerals are common. Associated minerals including calcite, hematite, gageite, hausmannite, andradite, hydroxyapophyllite, pyrite, creedite, rhodochrosite, glauconite, sturmanite, gaudefroyite, clinochlore and c halcedonic1 quartz.” The locality is much better known for the wonderful rhodochrosite specimens that were found there and many other interesting minerals.
1 Mineralogical Record, Vol. 22, 1991, p 282.

Nababeep, Namaqualand. A few surprisingly good specimens of golden barite have come from here. The one pictured here is on quartz.

Transvaal Province, Messina Mining District, Messina. “Barite occurs sporadically as flattened, orthorhombic Crystals or a habit resembling wulfenite crystals. The color of the barite is light beige to tan. Crystals may occur as floater groups. In some cases, spear-shaped terminations of larger (>1cm) crystals may be rimmed with an overgrowth of barite microcrystals of similar habit and color. The barite is a late-stage mineral commonly found to exist on top of the secondary quartz crystals.”1 In the good article sited below is a picture of a 10 cm crystal cluster of tan barite crystals with crystals larger than 5 cm. This locality is much better know for its quartz crystals with colorful inclusions of ajoite, hematite, papagoite and cuprite and chalcocite. See Bruce Carincross’s good article in the Mineralogical record, sited below.
1. Mineralogical Record, Bruce Cairncross, Vol. 22, 1991, p 193.



Click here to view Barite and here to view Best Minerals B and here for Best Minerals A to Z and here for Fast Navigation of completed Best Minerals articles.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2012 08:49PM by Rock Currier.

Barite crystal 83 x 25.5 x 14.5 cm and weighing 76.5 kg. from Elandsrand gold mine, South Africa
Cairncross, B. and B. Rademeyer (2001) Large barite crystals from the Elandsrand gold mine, South Africa. Mineralogical Record 32:177-180.

I have a bunch of text that I have already written for barite, but I never got all that far from it. I think I made mention of that find. Below is what I got written on barite before I stopped. What I did get done Ill post in the Baryte welcome section.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Rock, I think this photo [www.mindat.org] is from the Nababeep West mine as per Bruce Cairncross/Roger Dixon Minerals of South Africa pg 187.

May be I can contribute with some info from this book ?

Debbie, Thanks for the comment. Before we use the picture Ill check with both Charlie Kee and Bruce.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Rock- here is a photo of a N'Chwaning barite, unusual. Bill Dameron


Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Here is Bruce Cairncross' picture of the Elandsrund barite which should be included in the Best of Species. Somehow I only saved the Web picture; Bruce has a better quality (and I used to!).
Bill Dameron

OK, Bill, thanks.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.