In the oil industry, barytes is chiefly used as drilling mud. The main functions of drilling fluids or muds are (a) to cool and lubricate the drilling bit and drilling string, (b) to remove cuttings from the bits and to transport them to the surface, (c) to have thixotropic or gelling properties so that in the event of a pump failure, the mud will gel and hold all the cuttings in suspension, (d) to cement the open wall of the well to counteract any tendency for a loose formation to cave into the well, (e) to control the pressure in the well by virtue of the mud’s high specific gravity and to prevent a well running wild in the event of oil or gas being met under pressure and (f) to reduce the friction in the drilling string. Barytes crushed to pass through 2.00 to 0.840 mm sieve mesh is employed in the production of homogenized glass as a flux and to add brilliance and clarity to the product. Bleached ground barytes has been used as a pigment in several ways: as the natural white sulfate and as blanc fixed in lithophone as an indicator in medical X-ray photography. It is also used as a filler in oil cloth, linoleum, rubber, X-ray proof plaster, and brake linings, clutch facings, rope finishes. It is added to bristol board, heavy printingpapers and even playing cards. In the construction industry, some barytes is used in concrete aggregate to weigh down pipeline buried in marshy areas and to shield nuclear reactors. About 10% of barytes is used with rubber and asphalt in a paving mixture suitably durable for parking lots, roads, and airport runways.roads, and airport runways.