SEA SALT WORKS

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 25 May 1932, Page 7

SEA SALT WORKS

BIG EAST AFRICAN SALINE

CHEAP PR ODUCTION

The world consumption of salt is about 20.000,000 tons per annum, and is still increasing. Among the different methods of obtaining salt, a special place is occupied by the extraction of salt from sea water. Sea salt is a raw material of which the supply, un like the limited stocks of many raw materials in the world, is truly inexhaustible.

The world’s need of salt leads to th : s procedure being adopted to an o'eincreasing extent, particularly wlm'-c the physical conditions are favourable - that is to say, where, in addition to salt water, a cheap and suitable source of evaporation is available. For instance, salines of this kind nlrerdv exist on the coast of the Led Sea where the sun performs tlm work of evaporation which is necessarv tor the extraction of salt from sea water. The largest sea saline in the world has, however, recently been oousfvrtod in Ha Pan. pem-ddnnd Ne n v 'Lif l o on tlm - oast of the Tulinn Oman, sal'' pans, tlmt is to say shallow basins into which the sea, water is led to evaporate. have been constructed on a stretch of land 20 km. long and 10 km. broad. The water is admitted by means of a network of canals which are opened when the tide is rising and closed when it begins to ebb. The water in the .salt pans is about 10 cm. deep and evaporates about 2 cm. daily under the intensive influence of the African sun and the desert sand, more water being added until a sufficiently thick layer of salt has been deposited on the bottom of the pans. The collection of the salt, which is done by negroes, can then begin. Salt ricks, where the salt collected is spread out to dry r , have been erected at regular intervals on the removal dikes between the salt pans. It is obvious that this method of extracting salt, with sea water as the raw material. the sun as the source of heat, and the soil of the desert as the filter, is as simple as it is profitable.