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A salt mine is a mine from which halite, commonly known as rock salt, is extracted from evaporite formations.
Contents
Mining regions
Areas known for their salt mines include:
History
Before the advent of the internal combustion engine and earth moving equipment, mining salt was one of the most expensive and dangerous of operations, due to rapid dehydration caused by constant contact with the salt (both in the mine passages and scattered in the air as salt dust), among other problems borne of accidental excessive sodium intake. While salt is now plentiful, until the Industrial Revolution it was difficult to come by, and salt mining was often done by slave or prison labor and life expectancy among those sentenced was low. In ancient Rome, salt on the table was a mark of a rich patron; those who sat nearer the host were "above the salt," and those less favored were "below the salt". The Roman historian Pliny the Elder stated as an aside in his Natural History's discussion of sea water, that "[I]n Rome ... the soldier's pay was originally salt and the word 'salary' derives from it ..."
Even as recently as the 20th century, salt mining as a form of punishment was enforced in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
Most modern salt mines are privately operated or operated by large multinational companies such K+S, AkzoNobel, Cargill, and Compass Minerals.
