Since 1962, recorded production from Universal Milling's barite deposit, part of Linke's lode, has totalled 28,542 tonnes. The deposit is in a Class B Environmental Area within the Flinders Ranges National Park. The steep barite lode has formed in a fractured zone which cuts the bedding of the enclosing Tapley Hill Formation shale, part of the Umberatana Group of sediments of Precambrian age. These sediments comprise a 'raft' within the Oraparinna Diapir, which forms the hanging wall of the deposit. The barite is mostly pale grey and coarsely crystalline, containing a significant but variable iron impurity and irregular shale inclusions. The ore satisfies the grade specifications for oil drilling mud, after beneficiation during milling. Less than 5 per cent of the barite could be simply beneficiated or blended to meed industrial grade specifications. Beneficiation testing of the crude barite ore by Amdel indicated that a combination of magnetic separation and acid leaching could produce pigment grade material. Additional work is required to confirm this and to determine the economics of such a process. A total resource of 8000 tonnes of barite is indicated above the quarry floor, with 49,000 tonnes inferred to subcrop 10 m below the floor and a further 4000 t/m inferred to lie below this level. An additional inferred 6000 tonnes are stockpiled within and outside the lease. Further mining will require the removal of large quantities of overburden.