The main reason Nevada barite is back is because demand has increased

Tag : barite
Spirit Minerals LP, a subsidiary of the Corpus Christi, Texas-basedManti Resources, has capitalized on the need with its recentlyopened Big Ledge barite mine, roughly 40 miles northwest of Wellsin the Snake Mountains.
The company mines barite - a nonmetallic mineral - from the ElkoCounty site. It finishes grinding the material in a Wyomingfacility and supplies the finished product largely for use as aweighting agent in exploration projects drilling muds for oil andgas.
"Everyone in the industry is convinced there is at least a 15-yearopportunity in oil and gas drilling," said Terral Young, vicepresident of operations for Spirit Minerals. "There is strongdemand for drilling and the services that go with it."
It isn't the first time the Big Ledge Mine has been active. Itbegan in the late 1970s during the nation's last energy crisis andcontinued on-and-off through the years - most recently under theoperation of Circle A Construction Co. in the early 1990s.
The highs and lows of domestic oil and gas exploration aren't theonly challenge for the industry. Domestic barite mining also hasfaced competition from China, which supplies most of the bariteused for oil and gas drilling on the Gulf Coast, Young said.
The main reason Nevada barite is back in play is because demand hasincreased in the Rockies and Canada, Young said. These areas canget a quality product from Nevada cheaper than Chinese barite.
Spirit leased 1,000 acres for the Big Ledge project and operates onabout 200 acres of that, Young said, employing a growing staff ofmore than 20 - not including mining and trucking contractors. Italso is considering a number of other projects in the northernNevada area, where it holds rights for properties north of Carlin,south of Beowawe and between Austin and Tonopah.
Young said Spirit expects to continue mining in Nevada for manyyears.
"We feel like we have at least a 20-year supply," Young said ofSpirit's Nevada properties.
The Big Ledge Mine, which started operations in December 2007before beginning in earnest in the spring, probably only has athree- to five-year life span, Young said, but may hold morereserves. The project has not yet reached the main ore body and isstill running stockpiled material.
"We are still in startup mode," Young said. "The mine is goingwell. ... We are operating and producing but are not at fullcapacity yet."
Full capacity, he said, will mean around-the-clock operations sevendays a week at its Dry Creek Jig Plant with four "jigs" - themilling equipment used to separate barite from waste rock by weightand concentrate the high density minerals on a screen submerged inwater.
Two of the jigs began operations in July. The project also has acrusher on the site to reduce the size of the rocks to a manageablesize for grinding.
Big Ledge is an open pit mine moving 10,000 to 12,000 cubic yardsof waste rock and dirt every day, said mine superintendent MelCraig. When it hits barite, it moves 2,000 to 3,000 tons a day, hesaid.
Spirit also is looking at possibilities for a local site where itcould set up a grinder that breaks the barite down to its finalsize, to complement its Wyoming grinder. Transportation challengeswith Union Pacific have been an issue for the company.
While most commercial barite is used in oil and gas drilling, italso has uses as a nontoxic filler in certain plastics and foams.There is a pharmaceutical grade of the mineral used for intestinalx-rays. All of these products come from a finely crushed form ofbarite.
Most of the nation's better-quality barite mines are in Nevada,Young said. There were at least six other mines operating in theSnake Mountain area during the 1980s, he said.
The Battle Mountain area, which was once dubbed the "Barite Capitalof the World," is still producing the mineral today. Major bariteprojects in the area include M-I Drilling Fluids' Greystone Mineand grinding plant, Baker Hughes jig plant and grinding plant andHalliburton's Rossi Mine and Jig Plant and Dunphy Grinding Plant.
Young said domestic barite production has risen to just over half amillion tons after peaking at more than 2 million tons a year inthe early 1980s. He is optimistic that domestic barite productionwill reach 1 million tons by the end of next year.
"We are too far from reliable and dependable energy to give up onoil and gas yet," he said.