Salt mining
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Salt mining extracts natural salt deposits from underground. The mined salt is usually in the form of halite, and extracted from evaporite formations.
Modern rock-salt mine near Mount Morris, New York
Diorama of an underground salt mine in Germany.
Inside Salina Veche, in Slănic, Prahova, Romania. The railing (lower middle) gives the viewer an idea of scale.
The Crystal Valley region of the Khewra Salt Mines in Pakistan. With around 250,000 visitors a year, the site is a major tourist attraction.
Salt
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In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as rock salt or halite. Salt is essential for life in general, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and is known to uniformly improve the taste perception of food, including otherwise unpalatable food. Salting, brining, and pickling are also ancient and important methods of food preservation.
Rock salt (halite)
Salt production in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt (1670)
Ponds near Maras, Peru, fed from a mineral spring and used for salt production since pre-Inca times
SEM image of a grain of table salt