Independent Salt Company

The production of salt at our mine is from what geologists call the Hutchinson Salt member of the Wellington formation. This formation was deposited during the Permian Age and is approximately 245,000,000 years old. It was deposited in thin layers by the evaporation of inland seas in what was then the south-western part of the super continent known as Pangeia.

The mineralogical name for the product we produce is halite, which is made up primarily of sodium chloride with traces of other chlorides and sulfates. Each sodium chloride molecule is made up of one sodium atom, a metal, and one atom of chlorine, a gas. By themselves these two elements are very dangerous, toxic substances. When combined into sodium chloride, or common salt, they form a substance that is vital to all forms of life and very important for modern industry.

The salt produced at Independent Salt is not used for direct human consumption, as is table salt, which is produced from brine pumped from wells or the ocean. Instead, our product is used as an additive to animal and poultry feed, for processing raw hides into leather goods, industrial water treatment, and as an aid in drilling oil and gas wells.