Tag: Salt Mines

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Salty Connections

Salty Connections: Drying Beds Surrounding the Great Salt Lake, Fall 2016, Courtesy NASA Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
Drying Beds Surrounding the Great Salt Lake
Fall 2016
Courtesy NASA Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center

The Great Salt Lake Courtesy Pixabay https://pixabay.com/photos/utah-great-salt-lake-water-95570/ The Great Salt Lake
Courtesy Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/photos/utah-great-salt-lake-water-95570/

Salt with a Wooden Spoon, Courtesy Pixabay Salt with a Wooden Spoon, Courtesy Pixabay

Sevier Lake, a Saline Lake in Central UtahSevier Lake
Courtesy & Copyright 2013
Holly Strand, Photographer

Kyle Bosshardt Explains the Origins of the Redmond Minerals Mine June 2018 Courtesy & © Lyle Bingham Kyle Bosshardt Explains the Origins of the Redmond Minerals Mine
June 2018
Courtesy & © Lyle Bingham

Kyle Bosshardt Explains Redmond Salt Mineral Composition to a Tour June 2013 Courtesy & © Lyle Bingham Kyle Bosshardt Explains Redmond Salt Mineral Composition to a Tour
June 2013
Courtesy & © Lyle Bingham

Here in Utah, early explorers and native peoples knew of saline deposits, springs and lakes long before the pioneers arrived in 1847. For example, more than 1300 years ago,
the Fremont traded salt, found near Redmond, Utah, to the cliff-dwelling Anasazi of Mesa Verde. Necessary for life, salt is found across the State of Utah, where it is harvested, mined, processed and traded worldwide for various applications.

In a geologic recycling story that crosses many epochs, different salt compounds are often mixed and then move in water or under pressure. Normal table salt, the mineral halite, is chemically described as sodium chloride. Often found together in different concentrations are the bitter salts of potassium and magnesium. All these salts leach from rocks and soil, then wash downstream to oceans and land-locked lakes, such as Sevier Lake and the Great Salt Lake. In many cases, an ancient inland sea or lake deposited a layer of salt followed by layers of clay, sediment or lava. Then geologic forces uplifted the layers to repeat the cycle and make the salt accessible.

Lehi Hintze, in Utah’s Spectacular Geology, wrote, “Rock salt has two characteristics that promote upward movement. First, it is soft and flows plastically like ice does in a glacier. Second, it is less dense than other rocks and tends to migrate upward through the denser surrounding rocks….”

When the pioneers moved to Utah, salt rendering became one of the first industries established for external trade. They boiled Great Salt Lake water over wood fires until only salt remained. However, this lake salt tasted bitter due to impurities in the water. Fortunately, it could be sold to mines in Montana where salt was used to refine silver. Today, salt from the Great Salt Lake continues to be harvested mostly for industrial purposes including metal extraction, water softening and road de-icing.

For early salt entrepreneurs, boiling proved expensive. In time, the sun was put to work and evaporation ponds were built on the shores of the lake. At first the ponds filled when the wind blew, sometimes resulting in wall collapses. These failures led to better walls and brine pumps to repeatedly fill the ponds. Anyone flying west from Salt Lake City has seen these multicolored drying beds. Harvested mountains of dried salt, seen at the Morton and Cargill sites when driving I-80 towards Nevada, are loaded on trucks and rail cars for nationwide distribution.

More recently developed, is the salt mine west of Redmond, Utah, near Salina. The Redmond salt deposit predates the Great Salt Lake, which came from the drying of Lake Bonneville. Redmond Minerals is mining the first 800 feet of a 5000-foot diapir, an extruded mound forced up from salt beds deposited by the Jurassic Sundance Sea. In digging more than 18 miles of tunnels, Redmond has identified several grades of salt. Their culinary salt is sold worldwide as Real Salt, but the majority of their production is for agriculture, animal health and de-icing.

Salt production in Utah is possible because of the geologic and historic past. Just as the Fremont gathered and traded salt anciently, modern methods of harvesting and mining allow companies to distribute products worldwide. As such, salt continues to contribute to Utah’s role as the Crossroads of the West.

This is Lyle Bingham and I’m Wild About Utah and its 15 years on Utah Public Radio.

Credits:
Photos: Great Salt Lake Photos Courtesy NASA Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center
Great Salt Lake and Salt with a Wooden Spoon, Photos Courtesy Pixabay
Redmond Photos Courtesy & Copyright Lyle Bingham, Photographer
Featured Audio: Courtesy & © Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections
Text: Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/
Additional Reading: Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading

Lyle Bingham’s Wild About Utah Postings

Strand, Holly, Utah is Worth its Salt, Wild About Utah, November 21, 2013, https://wildaboututah.org/utah-is-worth-its-salt/

The Great Salt Lake, Hassibe, W.R. & Keck, W.G., USGS, US Department of the Interior, https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/70039229/report.pdf

Cabrero, Alex, Redmond salt mine supplies Utah’s roads and chef’s kitchens, KSL TV, December 18, 2022, https://www.ksl.com/article/50540322/redmond-salt-mine-supplies-utahs-roads-and-chefs-kitchens

The Mineral Industry of Utah, National Minerals Information Center, USGS, US Department of the Interior, https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/mineral-industry-utah

Salt Providers in Utah:

Other Salt-related mineral extractors in Utah:

Above lists may not be complete. Please send recommendations to wildaboututah@gmail.com

The Great Salt Lake, Utah Division of Water Resources, Utah Department of Natural Resources, https://water.utah.gov/great-salt-lake/

Great Salt Lake Plans, Utah Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands, Utah Department of Natural Resources, https://ffsl.utah.gov/state-lands/great-salt-lake/great-salt-lake-plans/

Clark, John L., History of Utah’s Salt Industry 1847-1970, August 1971, Thesis, BYU Dept of History, https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5602&context=etd

Coloring the Great Salt Lake, The Earth Observatory, EOS Project Science Office, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147355/coloring-the-great-salt-lake

Hintze, Lehi F, Utah’s Spectacular Geology and How It Came to Be, Department of Geology, Brigham Young University, 2005, https://archive.org/details/utahsspectacular0000hint/mode/2up

Follow-up:
Winslow, Ben, Compass Minerals to abandon lithium extraction on Great Salt Lake, Great Salt Lake Collaborative, Fox13, Scripps Media, Inc, https://www.fox13now.com/news/great-salt-lake-collaborative/compass-minerals-to-abandon-lithium-extraction-on-great-salt-lake

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Utah is Worth its Salt

Bonneville Salt Flats as seen from Interstate 80 in Utah, USA
Bonneville Salt Flats
as seen from Interstate 80
East of Wendover, UT
Courtesy Wikimedia
Hermann Luyken, Photographer
Image licensed through
Creative Commons
CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication

Salt Production, Solar Evaporation, Courtesy Morton Salt, Inc.Salt Production
Solar Evaporation
Courtesy Morton Salt, Inc.

Sevier Lake, a Saline Lake in Central UtahSevier Lake
Courtesy & Copyright 2013
Holly Strand, Photographer

Salt Crystal, Photo Courtesy Minerals and Materials Photo Gallery, U.S House Subcommittee on Energy and Natural ResourcesSalt Crystal
Minerals and Materials Photo Gallery
U.S House Subcommittee
on Energy and Natural Resources

Hi, I’m Holly Strand from the Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University.

Throughout history, salt has held enormous significance for human society. And not just because it makes food taste better. Salt is a biological necessity. The human body needs a small but regular supply of sodium to maintain a balance of body fluids, keep muscles and nerves running smoothly and help certain organs work properly.

Thousands of years ago, salt was discovered to have another vital function– as a food preservative. This discovery quickly transformed the human lifestyle. For if people could preserve their food, they no longer had to depend upon the seasonal availability of food. Further, preservation allowed people to travel over long distances with a portable food supply.

Because of its central importance to health and human welfare, salt acquired some interesting forms of cultural significance as well. For instance, spilling salt is a bad omen. But you can mitigate by throwing the spilled salt over your left shoulder into the eyes of the Devil that lurks there. In many places salt was used as money. The English word “salary” comes from the Latin phrase salarium argentum, or “salt money,” which was paid to Roman soldiers.

Before the evolution of modern geology and extraction techniques, salt was difficult to find and to remove. The limited supply led to increased demand. In Salt: A World History author Mark Kurlansky described how salt demand spawned extensive trade routes, alliances, and even empires. Salt taxes were a common source of government income as well as a cause for revolt.

Here in Utah, it’s hard to imagine getting worked up about salt supply. There’s just so much of it lying around. That’s because as the 20,000 square miles of water that was Lake Bonneville evaporated, salt was precipitated all over the dried up lake bed.

The Great Salt Lake itself contains about 4.5 billion tons of salt. Currently 3 corporations extract salt using over 80000 acres of solar evaporation ponds near the lake. They produce over 2 millions tons of salt per year. This roughly equals the amount of salt flowing into the lake. For the Bear, Weber and Jordan Rivers add about 2.2 million tons of salt annually.

Utah and nearby states use the Great Salt Lake salt for de-icing roadways. Some of the salt is pressed into pellets for water softeners. Ranchers get salt-lick blocks for their livestock. And huge quantities of bulk salt are used in metal, chemical, paper and other industries.

Food grade or table salt is not produced from the Great Salt Lake area. However Redmond Minerals Inc. produces table salt in Sevier County.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:
Image: Courtesy Wikimedia, Hermann Luyken, Photographer, Image licensed through Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication
Image: Courtesy & Copyright Morton Salt, Inc.
Image: Sevier Lake, Courtesy & Copyright 2013 Holly Strand
Image: Courtesy U.S House Subcommittee on Energy and Natural Resources, Public Domain
Text: Holly Strand

Sources & Additional Reading

Wild About Utah pieces authored by Holly Strand

Freeman, Shanna. 2007. “How Salt Works” HowStuffWorks.com. https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/salt.htm

Gwynn, Mark, Ken Krahulec, and Michael Vanden Berg. Utah Mining 2010, Utah Geological Survey of Utah Department of Natural Resources, https://ugspub.nr.utah.gov/publications/circular/c-114.pdf Circular 114

Gwynn, J. Wallace, ed. Great Salt Lake: an overview of change. 2002. DNR Special Publication. Utah Geological Survey of Utah Department of Natural Resources. formerly at: https://wildlife.utah.gov/gsl/gsl_cmp_resource_doc/10minerals.pdf

Kurlansky, Mark. 2003. Salt: A World History. London: Penguin Books. https://www.amazon.com/Salt-World-History-Mark-Kurlansky/dp/0142001619

Salt Institute. A non-profit trade association dedicated to advocating the many benefits of salt. https://www.saltinstitute.org/ [Dissolved March 2019]

Stephens, Doyle W. and Joe Gardner USGS. Great Salt Lake, Utah https://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/wri994189/PDF/WRI99-4189.pdf

USDA. Sodium in Your Diet: Using the Nutrition Facts Label to Reduce Your Intake. https://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm315393.htm.