Barite, also called barytes or heavy spar, the most common barium mineral, barium sulfate (BaSO4). Barite occurs in hydrothermal ore veins (particularly those containing lead and silver), in sedimentary rocks such as limestone, in clay deposits formed by the weathering of limestone, in marine deposits, and in cavities in igneous rock. It commonly forms as large tabular crystals, as rosettelike aggregates of those crystals, or as divergent plates known as crested barite. Commercially, ground barite has been used in oil well and gas well drilling muds in the preparation of barium compounds as a body, or filler, for paper, cloth, and phonograph records as a white pigment and as an inert body in coloured paints. It forms a solid solution series with celestine, in which strontium replaces barium.