Comparison of Nigerian Barite Production with some Top Barite Producing Countries

Barite is a very important industrial minerals used as weighting material in the petroleum industry. The nature of barite ores, geology of barite ores based on location were discussed. This paper presents top barite producing countries in the world, their production and consumption of barite, as well as their reserve. Despite all the barite deposits in Nigeria, which is approximately 15 million tonnes, it still imports barite from other countries for use in the drilling of oil and gas in Nigeria. This of course brings about unnecessary expenses been incurred by the government of Nigeria. Some of the challenges faced with the mining and processing of the Nigerian Barite were discussed. Proposed solutions to the mentioned challenges were also stated. The main challenge of the Nigerian barite is not with the American Petroleum Institute (API) standard, but the policies which do not favour investors. Investment by private companies into the mineral sector of Nigeria will bring about a lot of revenue to the government, if the right things are set in place. Keywords— Barite, producing countries, low-grade