The presence of barite in the northwest part of Hot Spring County, Arkansas, in Chamberlain Creek Valley, has been known since about 1900. However, until October, 1930, no serious attempt was made to prospect the locality. Since this time, a test shaft has been sunk, 27 trenches and pits dug, and 34 holes drilled. Ninety chemical analyses and two flotation tests have been made. A geological survey has been made, both of the deposit and the adjacent area, for the purpose of determining the extent and origin of the barite and the possibility of other deposits.

The deposit is an impure barite, probably of hydrothermal origin, which has apparently replaced relatively porous, sedimentary beds at the base of the Stanley formation of Mississippian age. As now defined, the barite lies on the north flank of a synclinal valley, the west end of which is in contact with the igneous rocks of Magnet Cove.

The greatest known thickness of the barite stratum is 44 feet, measured normally to the bedding plane but this is not known to be the total thickness of the bed. The deposit has been traced for more than three-fourths of a mile. It is probable that at least one million tons of barite over an area of about seven acres are available 100 feet or less below the surface of the ground.

*Includes: 52 pages, 6 plates, 1 figure and 5 tables

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