British Salt Limited is a United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

-based chemical company that produces pure white salt

Salt

In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...

. The company is owned by the management and private equity company LDC. It is based in Middlewich

Middlewich

Middlewich is a market town in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is east of the city of Chester, east of Winsford, southeast of Northwich and northwest of Sandbach....

, Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

, employs 125 people, and produces approximately 800,000 tonnes of pure white salt every year.

LDC bought British Salt from its previous owners, US Salt Holdings LLC in 2007, investing £35m in the company. A management team has taken a minority stake. US Salt had bought British Salt from its previous owners, Stavely Industries plc in 2000 for £80m. In 2005, British Salt acquired New Cheshire Salt Works limited, known as NCSW Limited. This acquisition was referred to the Competition Commission

Competition Commission

The Competition Commission is a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom...

 who approved the purchase. Since the purchase the NCSW site in Wincham

Wincham

right|thumb|200px|Map of civil parish of Wincham in the former borough of Vale RoyalWincham is a civil parish and village in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is situated about three miles north of Northwich in the Cheshire Plain...

 has been closed and the 198 acre (0.80127828 km²) site sold to Chantry Developments.

The salt is extracted from strata that lie approximately 180 metres below ground. Bore holes are drilled into the strata and water is forced down to dissolve the salt. The resulting brine

Brine

Brine is water, saturated or nearly saturated with salt .Brine is used to preserve vegetables, fruit, fish, and meat, in a process known as brining . Brine is also commonly used to age Halloumi and Feta cheeses, or for pickling foodstuffs, as a means of preserving them...

solution is pumped along 5km of pipes back to the surface and direct into the Middlewich factory for purification and water evaporation to produce the pure salt. It is estimated that there are salt reserves sufficient for 200 years. The main uses for the salt products include:

• Water softeners
• Chemical industry
• Food processing
• Animal feeds
• Textiles and tanning

During the severe weather experienced in the UK in February 2009, British Salt also started to supply low-grade salt for de-icing of roads, after local authorities announced they were running very low on salt used for gritting due to the unexpected weather.