Origins :

British Era :

We all know that the British came here to the sub-continent for only one reason and that’s business. That’s why without any delay, they chalked out a plan using tunnel excavation and forced laborers to mine salt on a commercial level.

Not only that, but they also renamed the salt mines as Mayo Salt Mines, after Lord Mayo, the Viceroy of India. The men, women, and children were forced to work and later locked inside until they didn’t finish their respective quotas of salt mining. Moreover, 12 men were shot and killed during a protest in 1876.

Room and Pillar Concept :

The situation improved when the engineer was in charge of the main tunnel. Dr. H. Warth proposed an innovative method of excavation, known as the room-and-pillar method. In traditional excavation methods, the caverns and tunnels were blasted until they either collapsed, burying everyone inside, or simply ran out of the mineral deposits.

Conversely, a room-and-pillar method distributes the excavated salt rocks into two equal parts. One part remains undisturbed in the form of pillars to provide the desired support to the tunnel or cavern’s ceiling, while the other portion is mined and transported outside the tunnel. The workers mine the salt rocks across the horizontal plane, creating horizontal arrays of pillars and rooms inside the salt mines.

Himalyan salt is mined in Pakistan’s northern Punjab region at the famous Salt Mines. Located in the foothills of the Himalayas, the mine was discovered around 320 BC when the troops of Alexander the Great moved through the region. 

The story of how the salt deposits at Khewra were discovered is quite intriguing. In 326 BC Alexander the Great and his entourage were passing through a South Asia region (Pakistan) and when they reached an area now called Khewra the horses began to lick the stones on the ground. This was noticed by the soldiers of Alexander the Great and when the soldiers inspected the stones, they found them to be quite salty and this is how the salt reserves at Khewra were discovered. But it was during the Mughal era that the salt started to be traded in markets and then the mine was taken over by a Sikh Commander – Hari Singh Nalwa and the Raja of Jammu – Gulab Singh. In 1872, under the British Rule the mine was significantly improved to make the process of mining the salt efficient and safe for the miners.

Khewra Salt Mine is the second largest Salt Mine in the world and is in a city called Khewra in Pakistan, Asia.

Nonetheless, The Khewra Mines produce around 400,000 tons of Himalayan pink salt each year, making it one of the most productive salt mines worldwide.

Established in the 1820s, this mine extends through 25 miles of tunnels across 18 working levels. A major tourist attraction, it draws nearly 300,000 visitors to Pakistan each year with its unique artistic salt carvings of famous monuments including miniature replicas of the Eiffel Tower and the Great Wall of China as well as a small mosque and a bridge built entirely from salt blocks that extends over a salt brine pond.

Estimates put the amount of salt within the Khewra Salt Mine at up to 600 million tons. During Dr Warth’s tenure, the mine was producing over 187,000 tons per year but by the 21st century, with the introduction of modern equipment and digging methods that figure had risen to around 385,000 tons per year. Don’t worry, supplies aren’t going to run out anytime soon: the Khewra Salt Mine is expected to continue to produce salt for the next 350 years. 

Environmental Impact of Himalayan Salt Mining :

AGT Salt was the first company in Pakistan to start mining operations and successfully launched Pink Himalayan Salt and introduced products to the world as per international standards.. This salt vendor is registered with the FDA, in full compliance with the Bioterrorism Act of 2002, and shares our commitment to quality and high production standards. The mine is overseen by the Pakistan Mining Development  Corporation & AGTSalt which ensures that no child or slave labor is used and miners are provided fair wages, medical care and education.

Salt was extracted and traded from the Khewra mine on a small scale as early as the 13th century but large-scale mining began in 1872 when British engineer Dr H. Warth excavated its main tunnel. Warth reinforced the existing digs, introduced excavation equipment and a reliable water supply, and built storage warehouses. The improvements to the Khewra mine infrastructure were so successful that production boomed and authorities even had to introduce penalties for salt smuggling. 

Today, Himalayan pink salt is mined on a very large scale and is being exported across the globe. Mining in this area is stringently regulated to preserve the purity of this product. At the present moment, the salt mine’s internal tunnel system extends around 25 miles through 19 levels. This salt is often referred to as “white gold” in the local community. It is considered a national commodity that increases exports and brings great revenue to the country.

Composition :

Himalayan salt is a type of halite containing specific trace elements that give it a reddish hue. The red intensity mainly depends on the amount of iron present in the salt. Most Himalayan salt is pink, but some can be orange, dark red, or in some rare cases, totally white.

Salt is composed of sodium chloride and occurs naturally in many foods, including milk, eggs, and shellfish, and also contains essential elements to human life.

The specific composition of Himalayan salt depends, but the average percentage of the elements goes as follow: Add table

Trace minerals, including potassium, magnesium, and calcium, make up the remainder of the salt. This is what gives the salt its pale pink color.

Geological formation: 

Skilled workers mine Himalayan salt with traditional methods in Pakistan's Salt Range mountains, which are located on the southern border of a fold-and-thrust belt beneath the Pothohar Plateau, south of the Himalayas. Himalayan salt is derived from the Salt Range Formation's thick coating of Ediacaran to early Cambrian evaporites.

The geological formation is made up of crystalline halite intercalated with potash salts, which is overlain by gypsiferous marl and interlayered with gypsum and dolomite, with occasional seams of oil shale that formed between 600 and 540 million years ago. The Salt Range was formed when these strata and the overlying Cambrian to Eocene sedimentary rocks were shoved southward over younger sedimentary rocks and degraded.