GEA offers classifying decanters for barite recovery in drilling mud treatment.
Special treatment is required for the heavy mineral barite (barium sulphate), which has a minimum specific density of 4.20 g/cm3. The comparatively expensive barite is added to the drilling mud on board in order to thicken the drilling mud. This rare and valuable mineral would have to be disposed of together with the dried drilling mud if it could not be separately precipitated. In order to recover the precious barite and recycle it back into the process GEA has developed a special classifying decanter. This special decanter removes only very heavy solids from the mud.
