Salt Mining

[ghazi52]

Salt Mining

Sea Salt.

Salt has been an essential part of cuisine all over the world since time immemorial. Apart from the daily diet, it is used in so many things like paint, detergent, soaps, beauty industry (spas, saloons, massage parlours, health clubs and hydrotherapy) and home decoration. The industry uses it in the manufacturing caustic soda and soda ash. Its use in the dyeing and therapeutic industry as well as the de-icing of roads has only added to its significance for human beings.

Pakistan is the proud host of 800-million-year-old mines that hold over 10 billion tonnes of deposits. Stretched for 209 kilometres between Jhelum and Indus rivers, the salt range produces two to four million tonnes of rock salt annually, depending on demand and market variables.

Up to half a million tonnes of sea salt further enhances the production figure. With the addition of largely undocumented lake salt, Pakistan becomes one of the few countries that are bestowed with all three sources of salt.

However, despite these imposing production figures and extraordinary deposits, the country has not been able to fully exploit its salt potential, particularly in the export sector. The Netherlands topped the exporters’ list in 2017 with $280m, followed by Belgium at the bottom tenth with $85m. With the exports of $50m, Pakistan was placed on the list of emerging countries.


The global market may not have much demand for table salt, but the commodity’s use in industrial and beauty segments has a lot of promise that Pakistan should explore

Exporters say that annual global demand for quality salt is around 270m tonnes. China alone needs well over 60m tonnes and, despite being a huge producer, faces a shortfall of around 10m tonnes. If Pakistan can somehow meet only the Chinese shortfall, which it easily can because of its geographical proximity, the country can multiply its export figure.

Salt exporter from Lahore Suhail Ikram thinks that Pakistan can enhance its exports by ensuring the right kind of policy and operational environment. The industry faces three problems at the domestic level: one, poor electricity supply hinders the entire grinding and value addition process. Manufacturers produce salt lamps, tiles and a range of other products, which have a huge market in the world. Consistent supply of electricity is crucial for that, they say.

Two, the mining process poses twin problems: poor supply of explosives and seasonal rainwater that inundates mines occasionally, stopping the entire operation. With growing terrorism in the country for the past decade and a half, law enforcement agencies became extremely vigilant against explosives trade. All mines are now required to keep, update and furnish data of the purchase and consumption of explosives. Although the salt mining industry uses only black powder — a low intensity material normally used for fireworks — its supplies are often affected, which hurt mining operations.

Three, erratic weather producing untimely rains further complicates the situation by keeping mines and miners idle for weeks. If the government can help smooth away these problems, the industry can certainly make another few hundred million every year, Mr Ikram claimed.

As for salt exports, trader from Sargodha Suhail Ahmad says that all mines that are in operation were developed before Pakistan came into being. They have largely lost touch with the changing realities of the global market. The world aesthetics now demand coloured, especially dark shade, salt gadgets for home decor,” he said.

Pakistan used to produce pink salt, which helped it earn millions of dollars for decades. Now, export earnings from pink salt are diminishing. Nothing has replaced pink salt although black and grey salt is available in the unexplored (Kalabagh, closer to the Indus River) parts of the salt range. The area already has well-developed infrastructure and road network. It will not be hard to develop it for mining.

Pakistan misses out on such opportunities because it has not been able to take a holistic view of the commodity trade. It is time the country developed a salt strategy based on local production and world trends. The development of new mines is easier now because of global initiatives like the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) Code and Canada Institute of Mining that can help Pakistan.

Furthermore, advanced technology is available off the shelf now. Human resources for business improvement programmes and marketing are also available that can identify potential buyers, especially among neighbouring states, he suggests.

The world salt market may not have much demand as far as table consumption is concerned, but its use in industrial and beauty segments has a lot of promise that countries like Pakistan should explore.

 

[ghazi52]

 

[denel]

The pink salt is being well marketed and more needs to be done. Especially then using flavoured salts are value adds.

I have the pink salt which I use to sprinkle when eating onions; parts a very nice taste to it.

 

[Pakistansdefender]

The pink salt is being well marketed and more needs to be done. Especially then using flavoured salts are value adds.

I have the pink salt which I use to sprinkle when eating onions; parts a very nice taste to it.

We call it black salt here. It is pink in color. Has a different taste. We also use to sprinkle French fries with it. Or put it in lemonade.

 

[Death Professor]

We call it black salt here. It is pink in color. Has a different taste. We also use to sprinkle French fries with it. Or put it in lemonade.

and in orange juice. I some time put it in sprite too just to have that little bit of muah..

 

[ghazi52]

Why Is Pink Himalayan Salt Better than Table Salt?

Pink Himalayan salt is a much more balanced and healthy choice in comparison to common table salt. True, high-quality pink Himalayan salt is one of the purest salts you can find. It’s even typically mined by hand. This is very different from table salt that involves a great deal of unnatural interference. Table salt is very heavily processed, eliminating its minerals. Commercial table salt is typically 97.5 percent to 99.9 percent sodium chloride. Meanwhile, a high-quality unrefined salt like Himalayan sea salt is only about 87 percent sodium chloride. (6)

With most table salts, you’re only left with one mineral (sodium), some added iodine and most often some really health-hazardous anti-clumping agent like yellow prussiate of soda. Many commercial table salts also undergo a bleaching process and contain aluminum derivatives and other terrible ingredients known to be highly toxic to human health.


Top 5 Benefits of Pink Himalayan Salt

There are many awesome health benefits of Himalayan salt, with the following as some of my favorites.

1. Improves Respiratory Problems

According to the Lung Institute, salt is antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, loosens excessive mucus and speeds up mucus clearance, removes pathogens in the air like pollen, and decreases IgE level (immune system oversensitivity). (7) If you Google “Himalayan salt cave,” you see that there are now salt caves made of Himalayan salt all over the country (and world) so people can experience the beneficial health effects, especially when it comes to the respiratory system.

There is actually a term for this type of natural treatment. It’s called halotherapy. Derived from the Greek word for salt, “halos,” halotherapy or salt therapy is the inhalation of micronized dry salt within a chamber that mimics a salt cave. Studies have shown halotherapy to be a highly effective drug-free part of successfully treating chronic bronchitis.


2. Balances Body’s pH

Pink Himalayan sea salt’s rich mineral content can help balance your body’s pH levels. You may think this is no big deal, but when your pH has a healthy acid-to-alkaline ratio, it makes a huge difference in your overall health. A proper pH helps foster your immunity and encourage good digestion. Since pink Himalayan salt contains sodium as well as other electrolytes, it has a direct effect on the pH of your blood.

3. Natural Digestive Aid

You can use pink Himalayan salt to make your own sole, a saturated solution containing purified water and Himalayan salt. Sole is very similar to my salt water flush recipe, in which you can use pink Himalayan salt to help you obtain all the many possible benefits of a salt water flush.

According to natural health practitioners like Dr. Mark Sircus, an acupuncturist and doctor of oriental and pastoral medicine, a dose of sole each day can really help the digestive system in major ways. He says that “daily use of sole is believed to stimulate the peristalsis of the digestive organs, balance the stomach acid, support the production of digestive fluids in the liver and pancreas, regulate the metabolism and harmonize the acid-alkaline balance.”

4. Air Purifier

When pink Himalayan salt is used to create a lamp, it just may provide your home or office with cleaner air. One of the main Himalayan salt lamp benefits is its supposed ability clean the air. How? By its inherent nature as a salt, the lamp (which is a block of pure pink Himalayan salt) attracts water vapor to it as well as air pollutants. The water vapor evaporates due the lamp’s heat, but the dust and allergens remain in the salt instead of getting into your body.

5. Better Sleep Inducer

Himalayan sea salt is said to help encourage better, more restful sleep due to its high mineral content. It may be hard to believe, but eating enough salt in your diet daily is actually key to a good night’s rest as a natural sleep aid.

Research way back in 1989 showed that low-sodium diets can cause disturbed and irregular sleep patterns. The study was small, but the results were very interesting. Subjects on low-sodium diets (around 500 milligrams a day) woke up during the night almost twice as often and got about 10 percent less sleep than those on a normal diet (2,000 milligrams of sodium a day). A high-sodium diet (5,000 milligrams a day) led to even longer sleep than the normal diet with fewer nighttime wakings.

As Dr. Michael V. Vitiello, the director of the Sleep and Aging Research Program at the University of Washington in Seattle, keenly points out, “low levels of sodium in the blood cause blood volume to decrease, and the sympathetic nervous system becomes more active in order to compensate. That causes sleepers to wake up more often and have difficulty going back to sleep.”

I’m not encouraging you to go wild with the salt at your next meal, but it’s good to know that avoiding salt completely or not getting enough in your diet on a regular basis may cause or contribute to your sleep troubles.

Additional health benefits of Himalayan salt may include:

• Regulation of the water levels within the body for proper overall functioning
• Helping reduce common signs of aging
• Encouraging healthy blood sugar levels
• Promoting cellular energy creation
• Reducing cramping (like leg cramps)
• Improving the absorption of nutrients from foods
• Aiding vascular health
• Lowering the incidence of sinus problems and promoting overall sinus health
• Providing circulatory support
• Improving bone strength
• Fostering a healthy libido
• Promoting kidney and gallbladder health in comparison to chemically treated table salt

The pink salt is being well marketed and more needs to be done. Especially then using flavoured salts are value adds.

I have the pink salt which I use to sprinkle when eating onions; parts a very nice taste to it.

 

[ghazi52]

History of Pink Himalayan Salt

As I said, the history of pink Himalayan salt is very, very long, dating back to Earth’s creation. Himalayan salt comes from the Salt Range, which is a hill system in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It gets its name from its extensive deposits of rock salt. Geologists are especially interested in the Salt Range because it contains the most complete geologic sequence in the world with rocks exposed in continual order from the early Cambrian Times (about 540 million years ago) to the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago).

The Salt Range is said to have gone untouched for millions of years until 1849. That’s when Dr. Warth, a British mining engineer, helped design and construct a tunnel into the Salt Range to reach the salt deposits. His “pillar and chamber” way of mining is a technique still used today that requires the removal of half of salt while the other half is left behind as structural support for the mine.

Fast-forward to current times. The salt mine now covers approximately 43 square miles and tunnels about a half mile into the mountain. How much salt is still there? The salt still in the region is estimated to be somewhere between 80 million tons to 600 million tons.

Pink Himalayan Salt Precautions

You should always store salt in an airtight, covered container in a cool, dry place to keep it at its best. Make sure your pink Himalayan salt comes from Pakistan, which is the only true source of real Himalayan salt. I would stay away from any “Himalayan salt” that’s sold at too low of a price. This may be a sign that the salt was collected from higher elevations rather from the deeper, more pure salt mines. The salts from these higher levels are more likely to contain impurities, which makes them less health-promoting.

Since pink Himalayan salt contains so many minerals, it’s more beneficial to the body, but as a salt, it’s still naturally high in sodium. So as with any salt, you don’t want to overdo it. Getting too much sodium in the diet (especially with not enough potassium to balance things out) can lead to high blood pressure for some people. It can also lead to a concerning buildup of fluid in people with congestive heart failure, cirrhosis of the liver or kidney disease.

Final Thoughts on Pink Himalayan Salt

When used in moderation, salt really can be a healthy addition to your diet — especially if you make the upgrade to a pure, beneficial flavor enhancer like pink Himalayan sea salt. It can make so many meals that much tastier while also providing you with a boost of key nutrients and highly desirable health benefits. For instance, pink Himalayan salt benefits include improving respiratory problems, balancing pH levels, aiding digest, purifying air and inducing better sleep.

Pink Himalayan salt is definitely one of my top salt choices for both culinary and therapeutic uses. Have you tried it yet? Are thinking about making the switch from your current salt to Himalayan? I really hope you’ll love it as much as I do.

Pink Himalayan Salt Precautions

You should always store salt in an airtight, covered container in a cool, dry place to keep it at its best. Make sure your pink Himalayan salt comes from Pakistan, which is the only true source of real Himalayan salt. I would stay away from any “Himalayan salt” that’s sold at too low of a price. This may be a sign that the salt was collected from higher elevations rather from the deeper, more pure salt mines. The salts from these higher levels are more likely to contain impurities, which makes them less health-promoting.

Since pink Himalayan salt contains so many minerals, it’s more beneficial to the body, but as a salt, it’s still naturally high in sodium. So as with any salt, you don’t want to overdo it. Getting too much sodium in the diet (especially with not enough potassium to balance things out) can lead to high blood pressure for some people. It can also lead to a concerning buildup of fluid in people with congestive heart failure, cirrhosis of the liver or kidney disease.

Final Thoughts on Pink Himalayan Salt

When used in moderation, salt really can be a healthy addition to your diet — especially if you make the upgrade to a pure, beneficial flavor enhancer like pink Himalayan sea salt. It can make so many meals that much tastier while also providing you with a boost of key nutrients and highly desirable health benefits. For instance, pink Himalayan salt benefits include improving respiratory problems, balancing pH levels, aiding digest, purifying air and inducing better sleep.

Pink Himalayan salt is definitely one of my top salt choices for both culinary and therapeutic uses. Have you tried it yet? Are thinking about making the switch from your current salt to Himalayan? I really hope you’ll love it as much as I do.

By Annie Price, CHHC

https://draxe.com/pink-himalayan-salt/

 

[Isotope]

and in orange juice. I some time put it in sprite too just to have that little bit of muah..

Is it called Himalayan salt in the US?

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

I like Sea Salt taste

 

[Death Professor]

Is it called Himalayan salt in the US?

Yea, it's called Pink Himalayan salt. Here in Pakistan it's very cheap, usually referred to as kala namak 'black salt'. There are usually lemonade stand's and they use it quite often, but most of us don't pay much attention to the details but usually the taste of lemonade and sour fruit juices become 1000 times better with this salt.

 

[denel]

We call it black salt here. It is pink in color. Has a different taste. We also use to sprinkle French fries with it. Or put it in lemonade.

ok. I know black salt; that is different from pink salt; black salt has high suphur content and hence the smell and taste; pink does not have that.
In food processing you avoid black salt due to reaction sulphur can induce.
I sometimes get the salt from the Kgladigadi salt pans; very unique taste and it is not commercially mined.

For normal use here we use sea salt, salt quaries are not common here.

 

[Dante80]

Three, erratic weather producing untimely rains further complicates the situation by keeping mines and miners idle for weeks. If the government can help smooth away these problems, the industry can certainly make another few hundred million every year, Mr Ikram claimed.

This part of the OP article doesn't make much sense. Does Mr Ikram want the government to control the weather? I think the wording is a little off here.

 

[ghazi52]

 

[ghazi52]

 

[ghazi52]

c.1918: These salt mines of Kohat are situated in what was then the Teri Tahsil - Bahadar Khel salt mines, Jatta Ismail Khel salt mines and Karak salt mines. Revenue from these salt mines was received by Nawab of Teri. Another salt mine of Khattak area is at Malgin. Revenue from this salt mine was received by Naib of Gumbat. KP