Salt mining

This article is about mining for salt. For other uses, see Salt Pit.

Inside a Polish salt mine in Wieliczka, a World Heritage Site.

A salt mine is a mine that extracts rock salt or halite from evaporite formations.

Mining regions

The Crystal Valley region of the Khewra Salt Mines in Pakistan. With around 250,000 visitors a year, the site is a major tourist attraction.

A small mosque made of salt bricks inside the Khewra Salt Mines complex.

Areas known for their salt mines include:

Country	Site/s
Austria	Hallstatt and Salzkammergut.
Bosnia	Tuzla
Bulgaria	Provadiya; and Solnitsata, an ancient town believed by Bulgarian archaeologists to be the oldest in Europe and the site of a salt production facility approximately six millennia ago.
Canada	Sifto Salt Mine in Goderich, Ontario, which, at 1.5 miles (2.4 km) wide and 2 miles (3.2 km) long, is one of the largest salt mines in the world extending 7 km2 (2.7 sq mi) .
England	The "-wich towns" of Cheshire and Worcestershire.
Germany	Rheinberg, Berchtesgaden, Heilbronn
Italy	Racalmuto, Realmonte and Petralia Soprana within the production sites managed by Italkali.
Morocco	JMS salt mine in Khemisset.
N. Ireland	Kilroot, near Carrickfergus, more than a century old and containing passages whose combined length exceeds 25 km.
Pakistan	Khewra Salt Mines, the world's second largest salt-mining operation, spanning over 300 km.
Poland	Wieliczka and Bochnia, both established in the mid-13th century and still operating, mostly as museums.
Romania	Slănic (with Salina Veche, Europe's largest salt mine), Cacica, Ocnele Mari, Salina Turda, Târgu Ocna, Ocna Sibiului and Praid.
Russia	Solikamsk
United States	Avery Island, Louisiana; Detroit, Michigan, 1,100 feet (340 m) beneath which the Detroit Salt Company's 1,500-acre (10 km2) subterranean complex extends; Saltville, Virginia, which served as the site of one of the Confederacy's main saltworks. Western New York and Central New York, location of American Rock Salt, the largest operating salt mine in the United States with a capacity for producing up to 18,000 tons each day. Syracuse earned the nickname "The Salt City" for its salt mining, an activity that continues in the region to the present day.

History

Diorama of an underground salt mine in Europe.

Inside Salina Veche, Europe's largest salt mine, in Slănic, Prahova, Romania. The railing (lower middle) gives the viewer an idea of scale.

Modern rock-salt mine near Mount Morris, New York.

Before the advent of the internal combustion engine and earth moving equipment, mining salt was one of the most expensive and dangerous of operations, due to rapid dehydration caused by constant contact with the salt (both in the mine passages and scattered in the air as salt dust), among other problems borne of accidental excessive sodium intake. While salt is now plentiful, until the Industrial Revolution it was difficult to come by, and salt mining was often done by slave or prison labor. In ancient Rome, salt on the table was a mark of a rich patron; those who sat nearer the host were "above the salt," and those less favored were "below the salt". Roman prisoners were given the task of salt mining, and life expectancy among those sentenced was low. The Roman historian Pliny the Elder stated as an aside in his Natural History's discussion of sea water, that "[I]n Rome ... the soldier's pay was originally salt and the word 'salary' derives from it ..."

Even as recently as the 20th century, salt mining as a form of punishment was enforced in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

Most modern salt mines are privately operated or operated by large multinational companies such K+S, AkzoNobel, Cargill, and Compass Minerals.

See also

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External links

• JMS Salt - production site
• Salt mine in the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia