An aid to labeling display quality barite specimens
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SOUTH AMERICA
ARGENTINA |
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| Neuquén, La Cecilia mine |
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| Stalactites of barite (or celestine– some need testing) with smaller crystals, this one 4.5 cm. One source labeled as pseudos after calcite but no apparent reason for this. |
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| BOLIVIA | |
| Potosí, Machacamarca, Colavi mine |  |
| Clear glossy tabular crystals to 2.5 cm on siderite. Mindat.org. | |
Potosí, Llallagua |
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White thin blades, somewhat translucent, perhaps to 1 cm. MR 37/2. |
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| BRAZIL | |
| Paraiba, near Joäo Pessoa, quarry near Cidade Baixa prison |  |
| Clear/gray thin tabular blades to 4.5 cm. | |
Rio Grande do Sul |
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| White sawtooth thin doubly terminated tabular crystals to 6.5 cm with small calcite rhombs on typical "geode" matrix, amethystine chalcedony layer. |
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| COLOMBIA | |
| Boyacà, Pauna, La Marina mine |   |
Small (1.5 cm) translucent light yellow blades on matrix with 2 nd generation small clear/white blades. With dolomite, pyrite. Also thicker golden blades to 2.7 cm, on limestone/pyrite in large specimens but with black/pyrite coating, much of which cannot be removed. |
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| PERU | |
| Huancavelica |  |
| Thin blades to 4 cm coated with tiny pyrite crystals. Mine/district not given. | |
| Huancavelica, Castrovirreyna district, San Genaro mine |  |
| Large white crystals with quartz are classics. These butterfly crystal groups are 4 cm, 8 cm specimen; some groups reportedly reached 10 cm. | |
| Huancavelica, Julcani district |   |
| Clear, doubly terminated nearly chisel-shaped crystals, flattened, to 3+ cm on small greenish balls of siderite, 10 cm. Also, thin white banded 2 cm blades with amber sphalerite & drusy quartz, 7 cm. | |
| Huanuco, Huamalias, Miraflores mine |         |
Many habits occur here; first appeared in quantity at St. Marie-aux-mines in 2005. Usually labeled Cerro Warihuayin for the hill of the locality. Left to right:
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| Ancash, Huanzala mine |   |
| Nice milky/clear tabular crystals to 1 cm in groups on bright galena crystals to nearly 1 cm, small pyrite crystals, 8 cm. White zoned blades to 1.5 cm on brilliant pyrite octahedrons (labeled Huaron; such octahedrons not as common from Huaron as other forms). | |
| La Libertad, Quiruvilca district |   |
| Clear-tan tabular blades to 3.5 cm perched on pyrite; clear tabular double crystals to 3 cm on orpiment crystals. | |
| Lima, Casapalca district |   |
| Very thin beige blades to 3 cm on pyrite crystals, 4 cm. Also clear, zoned tabular blades to 2.5 cm on (probably) polybasite. This one appeared in '98, when Bella Vista mine barite was selling, but not so labeled. | |
| Lima, Raura district | |
| White blades to several cm with sulfides. See MR 28/4. | |
| Pasco, Huaron district |  |
| Pointed, glassy tabular crystals to 1.5 cm, various zones of light blue-gray, nearly transparent, 12 cm. Often with pyrite. |
BARITE SPECIMEN LOCALITIES
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