Here is a picture of some Colorado Barite we found while researching for the rally.
Colorado has several locations for Barite. It comes in several colors from clear, milky white, blues and greens.

Here is a picture of some thats milky white. Its the flip side to the smaller specimen with blue barite on the lower center of the last picture.

A new stone for us to work in....very very soft material but wow!!!

This is some of Colorado's barite we found.....and turned into this!

A friend had done a few cabs from this material and had them on display at the BV show.
You can see why were motivated to try a piece or two ourselves....

Enjoy
CP

cool cabs dan,ya would'nt think by looking at the rough that it would cab at all.i guess that you never know til ya try.jim

After reading this thread I think I may of found some barite and I never knew what it was. Is it found in the san juans; is it volcanic? Im no geologist and never know exactly what to look for, what is the host rock it is found on?
Thanks, Dude

Thanks Jim .....may just have to do a couple more of em'
Goes to show ya' tho...just never know what it's gonna' come out in the end!

I'm no geologist either 4C but I think it is an after effect of volcanic activity, but occurs in clays found in the limestone beds.
The limestone is part of the Pennsylvania Maroon formation of the Permian age and is sedimentary.
Also found info that said calcium carbonate may encrust the surface.

While we did research online we did keep finding reference to the San Juan area but not any specifics as to locals with the barites......Hopefully you did find some though.....and more importantly, can find the deposit again.

We would all love to see some pics of your San Juan barites 4C if you have any to post handy.

A couple other interesting tid bits........
Barite (contains the heavy metal Barium) is used both in paper and paint manufacturing.

I'm no doctor either but I think they may have uses for barium in the medical fields as well.

If you leave the Hartsel barites out in the sun the ultraviolet rays will deepen the blue colors.

Colorado has some really cool digs! Have I ever mentioned that?

CP

I'll try and find some pieces, I bet the stuff I have is just quartz, but I'll post some photos if I can find this stuff. The pieces were above the treeline I think and I'm sure the area is volcanic, everything else makes sense too... just can't remember exactly what this stuff looked like. I found it just northeast of Silverton in the mine dumps, so I dont know what formation it came from.

Well, I have looked pretty hard and even cleaned out my shed but no Barite in sight. I think it must of been quartz, I found a large "pocket" of quartz in my shed, lol, and I think it was the stuff I thought was barite, darn!

A Barite specimen that Crusty gifted me this summer. Not exactly sure where he got it but very nice! Thank you again Mike.

Barite by GhostCreekMine, on Flickr

Barite 2.1 by GhostCreekMine, on Flickr

You're welcome!

Came from the private land dig in Hartsel. Fun day trip from the SPrings, great place to take kids to get them digging. Just gotta stop by the rock shop in town, pay $5 and they'll give you directions.

Fancy in the Pantcy.


Remind me to charge you 5.00 next time you stop by Endless...

Trying to keep sane over the winter. Here are some Barite samples I found this week in NE Colorado. Still had to hike through about a mile of snow but if theres a will... These are hopefully leading me to a pocket big enough to hold fully developed crystals. A few of the small ones do have some gemmy qualities.
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Happy Hunting!

James

Cool stuff!! Hope you find the good stuff!

Nice Barite find James! A little more room for crystals to form and that could be a big find!

I have finally found a little bit of blue Barite in the NE. We started to find it in what appears to be tube formations left behind by old root systems in the clay. Ian found a few hollow tubes of Calcite that had nice little blue Barite crystals on the colorless calcite. The tubes with all Barite are gemmy and blue in the center but do not clean up very well so far. Not much for good crystal formation in these tubes. Yesterday Dave and I found a thin 30ft long crack in the clay that was showing Barite along it. I dug at it for a hour or so before we left and found a tiny pocket space where the Barite tried to form some crystals which gives me hope that larger open areas may be under there with good crystal forms.

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Hate it when you get so close and then have to leave before you get to the good stuff. Hope it opens up on your next trip!

We went back looking for more Barite locations this weekend and today I found a few small prismatic crystals on the surface. One of them is bi-color although the colors are pale. Other broken pieces would suggest there is a good chance for nice bi-color crystals with solid color and form at this spot. The Barite trend here seems to cover a large area. We are finding Barite in different forms. Prismatic, tabular, rosettes and massive stuff is forming wherever there is enough room in thin cracks and holes and tubes shapes left behind from old root systems. Sometimes found with or on nice clear Calcite crystals.
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Sweet. I've been wanting to get back out there.

I think I will be going back the next weekend and camping if the weather stays mild. I could use some help from Club Members!

Here is the biggest piece I found out there. Great place to take young'uns to... The ground is more sparkly than Liberace's sequons with all the Barite biys on the ground.



That would be cool; finding all this gold is getting old. ;)

I invited CP Club Members to join me in the hunt for Barite yesterday and today. We all found some cool crystals!

Day one I started with sifting and washing some loose debris which yielded some very nice small crystals.
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While searching I found this piece of fossilized jawbone with teeth.
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Fossilized jawbone... very interesting!!

While I was taking a break from washing material I looked at a nearby wall which was showing Calcite and Barite in it.
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So I started picking at it and this beauty fell right out in front of me.
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James and I attack the wall.
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Day two everyone found more crystals. After no more luck with the wall I went back to scraping the top of the hill and washing for more small crystals. I opened up another cluster of bi-color Barite which fell apart but yielded several medium sized crystals with terminations. I will have more close-ups this week. Here is the reclaimed hole where I found the cluster.
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Had a great weekend! Lots of cool stuff out there; thanks for the invite Mike!

I left my camera in the truck Sat, so no pics in the field from day one; only took a couple day 2, was too busy digging!

Can't wait to see some good macro shots of that AMAZING bi-color on matrix!

Looks like it was a great time!! Some very cool specimens and that fossilized jaw is amazing.
Very cool of you to invite other club members Mike!

Had a great time hunting for barite with MikeS and Crusty over the weekend. Found some great crystals and about 2 lbs of rough to try and tumble.
Unfortunately I am still unable to post pics. This time I'm told I don't have permission to reply to this topic and kicks me out?

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Got one thru wooooooooooohoooooo

We are still having techs look into the problem, hopefully they get it fixed soon.
Thanks for being patient James. It is very frustrating!! Was even bumping me when I was trying to post a pic earlier.

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The title of this thread is missing a color. The beautiful golden orange of these bi-color crystals we found. Wait, blue and orange?....Sounds familiar....
I will from this point be calling them them Bronco Barite!

Was really Mike's brain child, but I'm claiming it. Ha ha pun intended.

The Barite dose not react with shortwave UV but the calcite from the area does.


Normal:
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actually the Barite does have a slight green hue under the shortwave.

Longwave:
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Bronco Barite under longwave
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Awesome pics James! I need to get a combo light like that. I wonder how the crystals on calcite would look with both long and shortwave at the same time.

I took some pics today of the Barite crystals after a quick washing in soapy water.
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Besides some minor damage from mother nature and a tiny nick from rolling out of the wall, this crystal is in very nice condition. It is very transparent, lustrous and colorful as far as Barite goes. I can't find another picture of anything quite like it from anywhere else in the world. I love Colorado!

Prismatic, bi-color Barite on Calcite. Photos in natural light.
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That thing is a find dreams are made of!

That's the most beautiful Barite combo I think I've ever seen. I didn't know it could take on that color. The position and form are fantastic! That's a proud specimen.

Is that typical of the color of the ground up that way? It's white! And desert-like. Just wondering!

Most of the ground up that way is just grassland but several creeks and washes cut through and expose the white clay layer (Montmorillonite) which is made up of volcanic ash that was laid down around 30 million years ago. It is has a brown color when wet but turns very white when it is dry. It is a little desert-like up that way including cacti and rattlesnakes.

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Wooohooo! The pics loaded. And more than one at a time.
These are some of my bi color (Bronco) Barite from a single pocket found last month in NE Colorado while with some fellow CPers.