Information about salt
Establishing an industrial complex to extract salts and minerals: Definition of salt
Salt is a natural mineral that contains chlorine (CL) (60.66%) and sodium (Na) (39.345%), and is chemically known as (sodium chloride (NaCL), which is found in nature in the form of the very rare mineral halite or hydrohalite.
brief history :-
Salt is one of the oldest raw materials known to man since the beginning of creation and its use for some simple purposes. One of the oldest salt mines in the world is the Kewra mine in Pakistan. It is an economic wealth that represents the second largest salt reserve in the world. It is also considered a steadfast witness throughout the world. Time has passed on the beauty and magic of salt, which has been transformed over thousands of years into crystal sculptures and artistic paintings that catch the eye and attract visitors from all directions.
It led to evaporation, leaving behind this wonderful mine. Erosion factors have transformed the Kiura mountain range, which is 300 km long and 8-30 km wide, into a natural museum with a unique splendor that attracts attention. The bright colors of salt adorn the walls, corridors and salt ponds. Right and left, as for the salt stalactites, they sparkle in the ceiling of the mine as if they carried sparkling clusters that were carved slowly.
It led to evaporation, leaving behind this wonderful mine. Erosion factors have transformed the Kiura mountain range, which is 300 km long and 8-30 km wide, into a natural museum with a unique splendor that attracts attention. The bright colors of salt adorn the walls, corridors and salt ponds. Right and left, as for the salt stalactites, they sparkle in the ceiling of the mine as if they carried sparkling clusters that were carved slowly.
Its presence in nature: –
Salt exists in nature in several forms, including some that are of great importance and can be exploited economically.
- SOLUTIONS Salt: These are natural solutions such as sea and ocean water, salty lakes, springs, and groundwater. In these solutions, the salt is dissolved with some other salts, such as magnesium salts, and the degree of salt concentration in these solutions varies.
Solutions according to its presence. For example, salt is more concentrated in the White Sea than in the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea is more concentrated than the two, considering it is a semi-enclosed sea, and the Dead Sea in Palestine is more concentrated than all of them, considering it is a sea closed from all sides. The volume of salt dissolved in ocean water is estimated at about (4.5 million cubic miles).
- Beds Salt layers: They are in the form of lenticular or layered sediments whose thickness ranges from a few centimeters to hundreds of meters, and are always mixed with other sediments such as gypsum and anhydrite with some potassium salts. These layers are spread throughout the world within the group of sedimentary rocks of different geological eras. They are found in Egypt in the eastern and western deserts, and these deposits have no economic importance, as their exploitation will be expensive and expensive compared to the costs of extracting salt from other sources.
3.Salt domes and diapairs: These domes are found in Spain, Germany, Romania, Iran, and the United States of America, and the latter are important as they are among the most important geological formations for the operation of petroleum oil lake fisheries.
Interior and Coastal Salty))
4.Natural properties and chemical composition:
Salt exists in nature in the form of lumpy, granular, and flaky substances. It is characterized by the fact that it dissolves in water and its solution is neutral. Its degree of solubility depends on the temperature of the solution. At zero degrees Celsius, (35.7 grams) of it dissolves in (100 grams) of water, and at a temperature of (100 degrees Celsius) it dissolves. (39.12 grams) in the same volume, i.e. in (100 grams) of water. It is also distinguished by its property of melting snow and ice.
Mining (extraction) methods:
There are three main methods of salt extraction:
5.Dry Mining Method: whereby rock salt is mined relatively close to the surface of the Earth, and this method allows the exploitation of about (45-65%) of the ore. This method is also known as the Room and Pillar Mining Method.
6- Solution Mining Method: In this method, deep salt deposits are extracted, where two tubes (a small central tube inside a larger tube) are lowered into a well, and fresh water is pumped into the central tube. The water dissolves some of the salt, forming a very salty solution, and this solution is pushed into the well. The surface is passed through the external tube and transferred to tanks equipped for the industrial evaporation process to form solid salt.
7- Method of Mining Salt Solar: In this method, salt is extracted from coastal and inland sabkhas using the phenomenon of evaporation by sunlight, in which basins adjacent to the sabkha are immersed and left to evaporate, then the salt is washed away
Uses:
- For many countries, salt is considered a source of national wealth because of its importance in various areas of life, including:
- Production of chemicals used in many different industries, such as soda ash (sodium carbonate), caustic soda (sodium hydroxide, sodium chlorine, hydrogen, and hydrochloric acid).
- It is used as a flavouring, preservative and processing agent in human and animal foods.
- It is used as an agent to lower the freezing point of water to melt snow and ice.
5- It is used in the processing operations of some mineral ores.
6- It is used in the mineral, oil and chemical industries to produce soap
Dyes and leather tanning.
7- It is used in the refractory industry to produce ceramics and glaze.
8- It is used in agriculture as an insecticide and in the dairy industry, in addition to its uses in the manufacture of medical drugs.
9- Non-productive salt mines are used as warehouses for strategic materials such as hydrocarbons
10- The most recent use of salt is burying nuclear waste in rock salt mines.
Where salt is found in Egypt:-
Egypt enjoys an excellent geographical location and a moderate climate throughout the year. It is distinguished by the length of its beaches on the Mediterranean coast, as it extends about (1,100 km) from the city of Salloum to the city of Rafah on the Sinai Peninsula, and the beaches also extend about (900 km) on the Red Sea coast from the city of Suez to Halayeb.
Egypt is characterized by the abundance of lakes and depressions, which are flooded with sea water, which helped in the spread and establishment of natural and artificial solar salt pans on the shores of these lakes, due to them being primary concentration areas in the salt industry.
Salt is one of the most famous minerals known to ancient Egyptians since ancient times, and its use is today indispensable, whether as food or as one of the raw materials in multiple industries. Sodium chloride salt is found in economic quantities in Egypt in many areas, the most important of which are (Zaraniq Reserve – Sadat Village – Al-Sabika) in North Sinai. The Shakshuk area in Fayoum, the Al-Max area in Alexandria, in addition to Port Said, Rashid, Damietta, and Marsa Matrouh.
Despite the availability of large areas of beaches in Egypt, in addition to a wealth of rock salt in the Qattara Depression, which alone can raise the volume of production to about 10 million tons annually, Egypt’s salt production does not exceed the level of 2.4 million tons annually, and it ranks sixteenth in the world, according to the Survey Authority’s figures. US Geological Survey, which is less than the volume of domestic consumption by about one million tons imported by Egypt.
Project Idea :-
The idea of the project, in brief, depends on exploiting an area of land (430 acres) in an area where salt is available and preparing it for salt extraction.
The goal of developing navigation:
The purpose of the project is to extract high-quality raw salt, which is characterized by a high concentration of sodium chloride (above 99%) and free of all environmental pollutants, and to establish and operate a factory to produce high-purity and high-concentration refined iodine table salt and salt designated for food industries, as well as the production of salt designated for industrial purposes. And ice melting salt (road salt).