Snow White Missouri Barite Specimen

An interesting Barium Sulfate crystal cluster that is snow white and was mined in Washington County, Missouri. Barite has tremendous industrial applications! It's used in oil exploration for it's high specific gravity (it's poured onto oil spouts or broken pipes to add some GIRTH to the oil and keep it from spraying everywhere). Barite is also used to make the barium drinks used before colonoscopies. Slightly less fun than oil spouts. Allegedly.