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Salt mining extracts natural salt deposits from underground. The mined salt is usually in the form of halite (commonly known as rock salt), and extracted from evaporite formations.
The earliest found salt mine was in Hallstatt, Austria where salt was mined, starting in 5000BC.
As salt is a necessity of life, pre-industrial governments were usually keen to exercise stringent control over its production, often through direct ownership of the mines. Whereas the collection of most generally required at least the grudging cooperation of the upper classes, ownership of salt mines could provide monarchs with a lucrative source of income for which they did not need to rely on the goodwill of other strata of society such as the nobility to remit to the monarch. For example, Poland king Casimir the Great relied on salt mines for over a third of his revenue in the 14th century.
Ancient China was among the earliest civilizations in the world with cultivation and trade in mined salt. They first discovered natural gas when they excavated rock salt. The Chinese writer, poet, and politician Zhang Hua of the Jin dynasty wrote in his book Bowuzhi how people in Zigong, Sichuan, excavated natural gas and used it to boil a rock salt solution. The ancient Chinese gradually mastered and advanced the techniques of producing salt. Salt mining was an arduous task for them, as they faced geographical and technological constraints. Salt was extracted mainly from the sea, and salt works in the coastal areas in late imperial China equated to more than 80 percent of national production. The Chinese made use of Salt crystal of salt lakes and constructed some artificial evaporation basins close to shore. In 1041, during the Song dynasty, a well with a diameter about the size of a bowl and several dozen feet deep was drilled for salt production. In Southwestern China, natural salt deposits were mined with Borehole that could reach to a depth of more than , but the yields of salt were relatively low. Salt mining played a pivotal role as one of the most important sources of the Imperial Chinese government's revenue and state development.
Most modern salt mines are privately operated or operated by large multinational companies such as K+S, AkzoNobel, Cargill, and Compass Minerals.
Mining regions around the world
Some notable salt mines include:
Hallstatt and Salzkammergut. Tuzla Provadiya; and Solnitsata, an ancient town which Bulgarian archaeologists regard as the oldest in Europe and the site of a salt-production facility approximately six millennia ago. Sifto Salt Mine in Goderich, Ontario, which, at wide and long, is one of the largest salt mines in the world extending .Amy Pataki, Richard Lautens, Salt at the source: a day in a Lake Huron mine, The Toronto Star , Fri Aug 15 2014.
Zipaquirá The "-wich towns" of Cheshire and Worcestershire. Danakil Desert, where manual labor is used. Rheinberg, Berchtesgaden, Heilbronn Mountcharles Racalmuto, Realmonte and Petralia Soprana within the production sites managed by Italkali. Société de Sel de Mohammedia (Mohammedia Rock Salt company) near Casablanca Kilroot, near Carrickfergus, more than a century old and containing passages whose combined length exceeds 25 km. Khewra Salt Mines, the world's second largest salt-mining operation, spanning over 300 km. It was first discovered by a horse of Alexander the Great. The mine is still operation till today. Wieliczka and Bochnia, both established in the mid-13th century and still operating, mostly as museums. Kłodawa Salt Mine. Slănic (with Salina Veche, Europe's largest salt mine), Cacica, Ocnele Mari, Salina Turda, Târgu Ocna, Ocna Sibiului, Praid and Salina Ocna Dej.
| Ukraine | Soledar Salt Mine in Soledar, Donetsk oblast.
United States
Idiomatic use
In slang, the term , and especially the phrase , refers ironically to one's workplace, or a dull or tedious task. This phrase originates from in reference to the Russian practice of sending prisoners to Unfree labour in Siberian salt mines.
See also
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