Baryte

Baryte from the Lee District, Lampang Province, Thailand, measuring 84 × 46 × 37 mm and weighing 228 grams. A heftier piece than its American counterpart elsewhere in this sale, and a chance to compare Baryte from two quite different parts of the world.

This is the same mineral, barium sulfate, but from a very different setting to the Illinois material in this sale: northern Thailand's carbonate-hosted lead-zinc-barite deposits, where mineralising fluids moving through limestone and associated rocks deposited Baryte alongside base-metal sulfides in veins and karst-related cavities. Baryte from this part of Thailand typically presents as tabular to bladed crystal aggregates, and its density, noticeably greater than most common rock-forming minerals, is one of the easiest physical properties to demonstrate with a piece this size.

South-East Asian barite has become steadily more available to Western collectors over recent years as mining and export from the region has grown, giving collectors access to a locality that was once rarely seen outside Thailand itself. This piece is from the David Vince Collection.