Refined barium is a soft, silvery alkaline earth metal with limited direct applications as a pure metal. Its primary industrial uses are as barium compounds rather than the metal itself: barium sulphate (barite) as a drilling fluid weighting agent in oil and gas extraction, barium carbonate in glass and ceramic manufacture, and barium compounds as white pigments. Barium metal itself is used in vacuum tube manufacturing as a getter, absorbing residual gases to maintain vacuum integrity. Barium is produced by aluminium reduction of barium oxide under vacuum.
