Is United States number one in the 11 largest barite producing countries in the world? In a word, no. In fact, United States isn’t even close to being number one; it would need to increase its production by more than 700% to be able to even come close. This is the issue with America in general, the supposedly greatest superpower in the world, as evidenced by the 10 largest aluminum producing countries in the world. This is despite the fact that the US is the largest consumer of barite in the world by far, thus paying other countries for something which it could have produced within, creating thousands of jobs and giving the dying middle class in the country a lifeline.
Mining results in the creation of thousands of jobs, yet the US chooses to lag behind other countries simply because it’s easier and cheaper to have other countries produce them and then buy them. In the last month, 26 million Americans have filed for unemployment; at least 15% of the working population. Could a lot of job losses have been prevented if America didn’t prefer outsourcing its labor? That is very likely, and in these uncertain times, a sobering thought indeed.
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So what exactly is barite? It’s after all not one of the more popular minerals. Well, barite has a lot of very important uses, such as being used in oil and gas drilling, as well as in the isotopic analysis of oxygen and sulphur. It’s also used generally in multiple other products such as a filler in paint, coating of automobiles, and also as a pigment for paper and textiles.
While the US still has a long way to go to catch other countries like China, there is still some slight good news in this respect. Our barite production has increased by 9% in 2019 and is now valued at $44 million dollars. To give you an idea of how much the US lags in the global market, the global market for barite is worth nearly 3,000 million dollars. However, Nevada and a sole site in Georgia are the only places in the entire US where barite is produced.
US is the leading consumer of barite from China, thus directly lending a competing superpower a lending hand in developing their economy and threatening the US’s status as the most powerful country in the world. To put it in simpler terms, the US is helping other nations at the cost of its own people. This is why the wealth disparity is growing significantly in the country. Where there was once a middle class full of potential and growth, there is now only the 1% and the other 99%, where people even with a good education and a high paying job can’t even afford a car, let alone even consider buying a house.
To determine the list of largest barite producing countries, we decided to go with the most reliable report, the Minerals Commodity Survey 2020. The reports includes the largest producers of barite in the world in both 2018 and 2019. We computed our rankings based on the ranking of each country for both 2018 and 2019. So without further ado, let’s take a look at the largest barite producing companies in the world, starting with number 11:
