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A dense mineral comprising barium sulfate [BaSO4]. Commonly used as a weighting agent for all types of drilling fluids, barites are mined in many areas worldwide and shipped as ore to grinding plants in strategic locations, where API specifies grinding to a particle size of 3 to74 microns. Pure barium sulfate has a specific gravity of 4.50 g/cm3, but drilling-grade barite is expected to have a specific gravity of at least 4.20 g/cm3 to meet API specifications. Contaminants in barite, such as cement, siderite, pyrrhotite, gypsum and anhydrite, can cause problems in certain mud systems and should be evaluated in any quality assurance program for drilling-mud additives.

A clay mineral that is composed principally of three-layer clays, such as montmorillonite, and widely used as a mud additive for viscosity and filtration control. Commercial bentonite ores vary widely in amount and quality of the swelling clay, sodium montmorillonite. Ores of lower quality, those with more calcium-type montmorillonite, are treated during grinding by adding one or more of the following: sodium carbonate, long-chain synthetic polymers, carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), starch or polyphosphates. These help make the final product meet quality specifications. Unfortunately, the additives may not remain effective in "the real mud world" when in use at the rig due to hardness ions in the water, high temperature, bacterial attack, mechanical shear-degradation and other factors that can render these additives ineffective..

A compound with formula CaCO3 that occurs naturally as limestone. Ground and sized calcium carbonate is used to increase mud density to about 12 lbm/gal [1.44 kg/m3], and is preferable to barite because it is acid-soluble and can be dissolved with hydrochloric acid to clean up production zones. Its primary use today is as a bridging material in drill-in, completion and workover fluids. Sized calcium carbonate particles, along with polymers, control fluid loss in brines or drill-in, completion and workover fluids. Insoluble calcium carbonate is the precipitated byproduct of mud treatments used for removal of either Ca+2 or CO3-2 by addition of the other ion