Coarse grain
The production of rock salt products from Alpine deposits
by physical processing techniques
Within the framework of this research cooperation between the Salinen Austria AG (SAAG) and the Institute for Mineral Processing, the possibilities and limitations of the production of rock salt products from alpine deposits by physical processing techniques should be analysed, as the demand for these products has been rising for a few years. The results show that it is possible to transform the rock salt from alpine deposits to a high-quality product by physical processing means.
Sodium chloride (NaCl) has been mined from alpine deposits in Austria for more than 7 000 years [1]. Formerly, mining was accomplished in two ways: On the one hand, the salt was mined underground and the miners followed the salty layers into the mountain, on the other hand, brines of lower grades were collected on the surface. Nowadays, sodium chloride is mined exclusively by solution mining in Austria, because of the strong intergrowth between salt and gangue minerals. By this procedure, two phases are formed: First, the solid phase, consisting of the insoluble residue, called “Laist”, which...
