Salt mine

Salt Mine

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Salt mine

A salt mine is an operation involved in the extraction

Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
of salt

Edible salt

Salt is a dietary mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride that is essential for animal life, but toxic to most land plants. Salt flavor is one of the taste#Basic_tastes, an important Salting_ and a popular food seasoning....
from rock salt or halite, a type of evaporitic

Evaporite

Evaporites are water-soluble mineral sedimentary rock that result from the evaporation of bodies of surficial water. Evaporites are considered sedimentary rocks....
deposit. Areas known for their salt mines include Khewra

Khewra

Khewra is a town of Pind Dadan Khan Tehsil in Jhelum District, Punjab province, Pakistan, it is located at 32?38'60N 73?1'0E. The town is administratively subdivided into two Union Councils of Pakistan and is the location of the Khewra Salt Mines....
in Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
, Tuzla

Tuzla

Tuzla is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the time of the 1991 census, it had 131,000 inhabitants. Taking the influx of refugees into account, the city is currently estimated to have 174,558 inhabitants....
in Bosnia

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country on the Balkans peninsula of South Eastern Europe with an area of 51,129 square kilometres . Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the south, Bosnia and Herzegovina is Landlocked#Nearly landlocked, except for 26 kilometres of the Adriatic Sea coas...
, Wieliczka

Wieliczka

Wieliczka [] is a town in southern Poland in the Krak?w metropolitan area, and situated in Lesser Poland Voivodeship; previously, it was in Krak?w Voivodeship ....
and Bochnia

Bochnia

Bochnia is a town of 30,000 inhabitants on the river Raba River in southern Poland, 35 km southeast of Krak?w. It is most noted for its salt mine, the oldest functioning in Europe, built circa 1248....
in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
, Hallstatt

Hallstatt

Hallstatt, Upper Austria is a village in the Salzkammergut, a region in Austria. It is located near the Hallst?tter See . At the 2001 census it had 946 inhabitants....
and Salzkammergut

Salzkammergut

The Salzkammergut is a resort area located in Austria. It stretches from Salzburg to the Dachstein mountain range, spanning the States of Austria of Upper Austria , Salzburg , and Styria ....
in Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
, Rheinberg in Germany, Slanic

Slanic

Slanic is one of the 14 towns of Prahova County, Romania, historically and currently known as a salt extraction center, as well as a spa town, with salt lakes....
in Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located in Southeastern Europe Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian Mountains, bordering on the Black Sea....
, Provadiya

Provadiya

Provadiya is a town in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Varna Province, located in a deep karst gorge along the Provadiya River not far from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast....
in Bulgaria

Bulgaria

The state of Bulgaria , Scientific transliteration Balgarija, officially the Republic of Bulgaria has played a significant role in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe for over fourteen centuries....
, Avery Island in Louisiana

Louisiana

The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
, the wich towns of Cheshire

Cheshire

Cheshire is a Counties of England in North West England. The county town, and the location of the county council, is the City status in the United Kingdom of Chester, although Cheshire's largest town in terms of area and population is Warrington....
and Worcestershire

Worcestershire

Worcestershire is a county located in the West Midlands of central England. From 1974 to 1998 it was administered as part of Hereford and Worcester....
in England

England

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History

Prior to the advent of the internal combustion engine

Internal combustion engine

The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs in a combustion chamber inside and integral to the engine. In an internal combustion engine it is always the expansion of the high temperature and pressure gases that are produced by the combustion which apply force to the movable component of the engine, such as...
and earth moving equipment, mining salt was one of the most expensive and dangerous of operations. While salt is now plentiful, before the Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, production, and transportation had a profound effect on the socioeconomics and cultural conditions in United Kingdom....
salt was difficult to come by, and salt mining was often done by slave or prison labor. In ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
, salt on the table was a mark of a rich patron (and 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 so sentenced was low. Roman soldiers were paid in salt, which is where the term "salary

Salary

A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis....
" comes from.

Even as recently as the 20th century, salt mining in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
and Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the colloquial English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party , which established a Totalitarianism dictatorship that existed from 1933 to 1945....
was performed by persons being punished.

Today most salt mines are operated by large multi-national companies like Cargill

Cargill

Cargill, Incorporated is a privately held corporation, multinational corporation, and is based in the state of Minnesota in the United States of America....
and Compass Minerals

Compass Minerals

Compass Minerals International is the second-leading salt producer in the United States and largest in the United Kingdom. Most of the salt produced is sold for highway de-icing....
.

Salt mine

History

Footnotes

See also

External links