Evaluation of economic viability of beneficiated barite from deposits in north-eastern Nigeria for use as weighing agent in drilling mud formulation

Exploitable deposits of barite exist in northeastern Nigeria but are not harnessed because their qualities are not to a standard required for drilling mud formulation. The work presented here is a preliminary result obtained from the beneficiation of barite samples from these deposits with the aim of attaining a level that can be used in drilling mud formulation. Results of elemental, mineralogical, and mud densities, cation exchange capacity (CEC), and filtration loss were obtained using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and other API 13B-1 recommended measurements before and after beneficiation. Barium composition of raw and laboratory-treated samples (GMB, IBI, BOK, DUM, and GAM) in percentage (%) are 50.5 ± 0.2, 55.6 ± 0.2, 57.9 ± 0.2, 57.6 ± 0.2, 0.097 ± 0.004, and 54.6 ± 0.2, 58.3 ± 0.2, 56.3 ± 0.2, 52.4 ± 0.2, 0.0845 ± 0.007, respectively while major impurity (Fe) is highest (1.52 ± 0.01) in sample GAM and lowest (0.025 ± 0.002) in sample DUM. The densities (g/m³) obtained after preliminary beneficiation increased to 3.89, 3.39, 4.28, 4.32, and 2.56 for samples GMB, IBI, BOK, DUM, and GAM, respectively. Filtration loss of 5 % W/V barite-mud formulation reported 12.2 ± 1.4 and 4.95 ± 1.7% more loss than two API-13A grade barite. The filtration loss reverses at 10 % W/V barite-mud formulation, with test barite reporting on average 3.22 and 1.15% improved filtration control against the API-13A barites. Mud formulation with loss additives reported significant filtration control with 23.6, 23.6 and 8.54% improvement over API 13A grade for beneficiated BOK, DUM and IBI samples. Similarly, the same formulated samples reported identical CEC values against API-Helicon and improved values against API-1 at 4.67, 7.29 and 4.67% respectively. Even at this stage BOK, DUM and IBI were improved to level that can be used in drilling mud formulation with samples DUM and BOK having the best potential (low impurity and high density). These results show that barite deposits from north-eastern Nigeria have great economic potential.