Rock Salt Deposits
The deposits that we are exploiting for rock salt today were formed millions of years ago. How they came to exist, was explained by the geologist Karl Ochsenius in his so-called "barrier theory" as follows:
During the so-called Permian period, approx. 250 million years ago, there was an extensive sea that stretched from the British Isles to Poland, and was separated from the primeval ocean by shallow banks, also known as barriers. Due to the rising and falling of the earth's crust, the edges of this sea were sometimes completely cut off from the ocean, and at other times fresh sea water flooded in.
In that age our latitudes possessed a dry, hot climate, and as a result of strong sunlight, water evaporated in greater quantities than could be replaced, just as in the case of the Dead Sea today. What remained was en ever-decreasing quantity of sea water with an ever-increasing concentration of salt, in which the minerals - gypsum, rock salt, potash and magnesium salts - crystallised one after the other, according to their solubility. Frequent repetitions of this process over the space of millions of years resulted in giant salt deposits that can be found in Europe at various depths and in various grades of purity. esco only uses particularly pure and rich deposits in Germany for the production of our high-quality rock salt products.
Rock Salt Extraction
Salt extraction in Europe can be traced back 7,000 years into the past.
The first step in mining salt is the drilling of holes for ensuing detonation. This is performed by experienced miners, using computer-controlled drilling jumbos that can drill holes up to 30 meters deep in a matter of minutes. After the explosives and fuses have been placed in the holes and the detonation has occurred, at the end of each shift up to 5,000 tons of salt, depending on the composition of the sediments, remain for processing and transportation to the surface.
Shovel loaders with buckets possessing a capacity of up to 20 tons pick up the blasted salt and haul it to the crushers. Here the salt is broken down, moved to the transportation shaft on conveyor belts kilometres long, and from there hoisted to the surface. Further processing first involves grinding the salt into the required granulation and then sieving it. The rock salt mined by esco is of such a high and pure quality that it can be used as food-grade salt without any further cleaning.
Rock salt, with its naturally-grown crystals and varied granulation, is used for numerous
industrial applications.
