Barite Price per kg (United States)

The price has reached its highest level of the past year, $0.15 per kg barite.

Its 12-month range runs from a low of $0.077 to a high of $0.15.

It is +33.7% over the past year and +57.5% over five years.

Barite, the mineral form of barium sulphate, is heavy and chemically inert, and its main job is weighting drilling fluids for oil and gas wells. Its high density keeps downhole pressure under control and helps prevent blowouts, so most of the barite consumed in the United States ends up in drilling mud, and demand rises and falls with rig activity. Higher-purity grades are processed into barium chemicals.

Other uses

• Fillers in paints, plastics and rubber
• Radiation shielding in hospitals and nuclear facilities
• Barium meals for X-ray imaging of the digestive tract
• Brake pads and other friction materials

Barite demand is tied closely to oil and gas drilling: more rigs and deeper, high-pressure wells mean more weighting agent. Supply is mined in many countries, but the US relies heavily on imports, much of it shipped by sea from China, India and Morocco, so freight costs and trade policy matter as much as mine output. A drilling upturn can tighten the market quickly, while a downturn leaves stocks idle.

What moves the price

• US and global drilling activity
• Import supply from China, India and Morocco
• Ocean freight rates
• Tariffs and trade measures on imports

Barite prices track the oil and gas drilling cycle. The oil price collapse of 2014 to 2016 and the pandemic in 2020 both cut demand and prices, while drilling recoveries have tightened supply, especially for US buyers who depend on imports. Ocean freight, which more than doubled during the pandemic shipping crunch, and trade measures on imports have added their own swings to the delivered US price.

As of October 2026, the Stockatomics benchmark price is $0.15 per kg barite.

China and India are the largest barite producers, followed by Morocco, Mexico, Iran and Kazakhstan. The United States mines barite in Nevada, yet still imports a large share of what it consumes, mostly for drilling.

Barite is on the US critical minerals list and the EU critical raw materials list. Oil and gas drilling depends on it as a weighting agent with no easy substitute, and the United States imports a large share of what it consumes, mostly from China, India and Morocco.

Stockatomics publishes a monthly US benchmark price for barite in US dollars per kg barite, reading as of October 2026. Unlike most prices on Stockatomics, this one is for the mineral itself, barium sulphate, as traded, not for contained barium, and not for a finished drilling-fluid blend.

Converting the price

• Per tonne of barite: multiply the price per kg by 1,000