Mining and chemical raw materials in the form of salt belong to the non-metallic group of minerals. Rock salt is characterized by the lowest content of impurities, low humidity and the highest content of sodium chloride - up to 99%.

If we consider the rock in its pure form, then it is colorless and water-transparent. Unpurified salt comes with impurities of clay rocks, organic substances, iron oxide, respectively, and the color of the salt can be gray, brown, red and even blue. Easily soluble in water. According to the degree of transparency, halite has an amazing weak glassy luster. World resources of rock salt are practically inexhaustible, since almost every country has deposits of this mineral.

Characteristics and types

Rock salt is formed as a result of the compaction of sedimentary deposits of halite that arose in past geological epochs. It occurs in large crystalline masses between rock layers. It is a natural crystalline mineral and an environmentally friendly product. Rock salt contains a natural complex of biologically active macro and microelements. We can say with confidence that this type of salt is the most popular and massive in sales. Subdivided into coarse and fine grinding. To increase iodine, iodized rock salt is produced.

Field and production

Solid deposits of salt are found in many regions of the world, where they occur at depths ranging from a few hundred to over a thousand meters. Salt layers are cut underground by special combines, then the rock is transported to the surface of the earth by conveyors. After that, getting into the mills, it crumbles to obtain particles (crystals) of various sizes.

They are mined in more than a hundred countries. The largest producer is the USA (21%), followed by Japan (14%). In Russia, the breed is mined in the Urals and Eastern Siberia. Ukraine and Belarus also have large reserves.

The use of rock salt

Rock salt is a storehouse of our planet. Most of the extracted salt is used in the chemical, leather and food industries. For the human body, rock salt is an essential mineral. Mankind consumes about seven million tons of salt a year.

Widely used in medicine. There are many ways that are popular and help to cure many diseases with the use of rock salt.

The use of salt in modern lamps is no longer considered a curiosity. The developers have proved that under the influence of heat, the salt evaporates, this is what allows you to effectively ionize the air in the room.

Or halite, a necessary and unique mineral in nature that people eat. It took him hundreds of years to become an indispensable condiment in every kitchen.

Halite got its name from the combination of two words: galla ("ink nut") and lithos ("stone"). In its pure form, halite contains many impurities and is not suitable for human consumption. Only after processing, ordinary rock salt is obtained from it.

Features of origin

This interesting mineral belongs to sedimentary rocks and occurs in natural brines, gradually crystallizing there. Its deposits have not yet been explored. Salt rocks are found in different regions of our country. They are also found in the craters of volcanoes. Natural halite in its natural state contains about 8% impurities, and its color varies from white, yellow, to blue and even red. Many minerals are covered with a dense skin of gypsum.

Chemical composition

39% halite consists of sodium Na and 60.6% of. In addition to them, KCl, CaCl, MgCl₂ are present in the composition - their content depends on the deposit.

Varieties of the mineral

In nature, it is customary to divide halite into certain categories:

• self-planting salt - a natural rock that is formed in evaporite deposits with fine-grained deposits of druses;
• salt marsh - common in the steppe and desert regions, is a salt efflorescence on the very surface of the soil in the form of a plaque;

• volcanic halite - asbestos aggregates formed as a result of vulcanization, they are mined directly in the craters of volcanoes;
• rock salt - seals of sedimentary accumulations of halite in rocks and their layers.

Various types of halite are formed as a result of precipitation of salts. Previously, it was believed that the mineral is obtained as a result of the precipitation of sea salt and the evaporation of moisture from it on the surface. However, over time, this theory has lost its strength. The formation of halite rock is influenced by certain physical properties, chemical compounds and geological features. To study the chemical properties of salt, you can conduct a few simple experiments even at home.

Salt Talismans

Salt has been credited with miraculous properties for centuries. It was believed that the mineral, seemingly simple in composition, could heal and expel negativity from life and home. And now salt is associated with many signs: scatter - to a quarrel, pour on the ground in the shape of a cross - to make a talisman against evil spirits, and also to reveal damage. It was necessary to make such amulets on certain days indicated in the old ritual books.

Medicinal properties

In addition to magical properties, halite is also known as a healing mineral. It is an excellent anti-cold remedy. They rinse the throat, nose with tonsillitis and runny nose. It copes well with pharyngitis, sinusitis, toothache and tonsillitis.

Making halite salt for rinsing is quite simple: you need to take 1 tablespoon of salt and dilute it in a glass of warm boiled water (200 ml). You can add a few drops to a glass. Stir until crystals dissolve. Such a remedy helps well with purulent processes, inflammatory and infectious formations. Salt heated in a bag is heated for radiculitis, sinusitis. But this must be done very carefully. The treatment of bronchitis and pneumonia with air-saturated halite ions has proven to be effective. This will require special equipment.

Application

The widespread use of halite is due to the availability of mining of this mineral. It is mainly used in the food industry. Before packing, the natural mineral is cleaned of impurities. Sometimes iodine is added there or additional crushing is carried out, as a result, “Extra” salt is obtained.

In the chemical industry, the substance halite serves to remove sodium and chlorine. As a result, we get the soda we know, concentrated alkalis and even hydrochloric acid. Halite is often included in paper, glass and. By the way, in lenses halite single-crystal film serves as an additional layer of strength.

Boilers of water heating units are cleaned of scale with concentrated halite. Halite is a good tool in the fight against frostbite on roads. Salt sculptures, lamps, interior items, amulets are made from pure mineral rocks. But this mineral is quite fragile, it is easy to damage it. Therefore, halite should be used only for its intended purpose.

Salt was once worth its weight in gold, but in this century it has suddenly acquired the status of a white poison. There is some rational grain in this, because even the most useful substance, if used in excessive amounts, becomes harmful to health, and, on the contrary, consumption within reasonable limits provides undoubted benefits to the body. This fully applies to salt.

Salt tradition

Old traditions say that one who starts his meal with salt and ends with salt can protect himself from seventy-two diseases, including madness and leprosy. Dear guests were always greeted with bread and salt. Salted mushrooms, cucumbers, herring to this day are the decoration of the festive table. Our ancestors knew a lot about healthy and tasty food.

What is salt

Salt is represented by two elements Na and Cl. But, if you look more closely at the elemental composition of table salt in one hundred grams of the product, it turns out that it contains a complex set of trace elements necessary for the human body.

The daily norm of salt intake per day for an adult is considered to be a dose of no more than a teaspoon, on average from three to six grams, taking into account the salt contained in other foods eaten.

Salt is considered extremely useful for melancholic people. They are shown short-term hot baths with sea or ordinary food salt before going to bed, at the rate of one teaspoon per liter of water. It is useful for phlegmatic people to rub salt while visiting the sauna. Salt promotes the digestion of food, can eliminate heaviness in the stomach, and has the ability to open blockages in the spleen and liver.

To whom salt is contraindicated

Salt is considered harmful in case of excessive consumption for weakened people with a thin body, sanguine people, choleric people. Salt is not good for the bladder, kidneys and in case of hypertension. Excessive salt consumption reduces the amount of semen and sometimes causes eye diseases, skin disorders, and impaired vision.

Salt is included in some eczema medications. Salt can help:

• with all types of mucous tumors;
• with gout;
• with the appearance of itching;
• with deprivation.

Mix its salt with vinegar, olive oil, honey, and you can use this remedy for all kinds of sore throats. Salt with honey can help in case of stings of bumblebees, bees, wasps. When tumors appear, salt is mixed with dry mint, raisins, vinegar and applied to the so-called wind tumors. In case of mushroom poisoning, folk healers suggest drinking vinegaromed. To prepare a healing potion, take two teaspoons of honey and two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar to a glass of boiled water, add salt. The solution should be pleasant, sweet and sour.

How to cure scabs and bad teeth

Salt with vinegar is used in the form of lotions when scabs appear on the head, lichen. In combination with aloe, salt is useful in catarrhs ​​(taken orally). Gargling with vinegar and salt will help with gum disease and loose teeth. Rinse your mouth with a salt solution in water, this is useful for strengthening the gums, for healing the holes that form during the removal of teeth.

When periodontal disease appears, it is useful to rub salt, which is dissolved in honey, into the gums (add five to ten grams of table salt to twenty grams of honey and mix thoroughly until dissolved).

For many millennia, table salt was used almost exclusively for food, to protect food from spoilage, to pickle vegetables.

Small quantities were used to make hides. To obtain rawhide, loosened skins are treated with a mixture of alum and table salt; salt enhances the tanning effect of alum and dehydrates the leather fibers, thereby preventing them from sticking together when dried. Since ancient times, dyers have used table salt to make pickles, and soap makers to salt out soap.

This continued almost until the end of the 18th century, until the development of weaving and spinning, the production of cheap fabrics from cotton, did not require soda and chlorine. Salt turned out to be the most suitable raw material for obtaining these products. In addition, as scientists have established, it could be used in the preparation of Glauber's salt and hydrochloric acid, alkalis, paints and many hundreds of other chemical products. For example, the preservation of leather is also not complete without the use of table salt: the washed skins are dipped in a concentrated salt solution to prevent decay.

As with table salt, people got acquainted with soda in ancient times. Egyptian craftsmen widely used soda for making glass and degreasing wool, and used it in medicine.

Until the beginning of the XIX century. soda was extracted from the soda lakes of Egypt and some other countries, as well as from the ashes of plants containing sodium salts in their tissues. In the Middle Ages and later, the Spanish soda "barilla" was famous, which was extracted from a specially bred salsola plant. In France, the source of vegetable soda was the selicor plant, in Scotland it was extracted from the ashes of algae. In the 40s of the XVIII century. French chemist Duhamel de Monceau made an important discovery: he proved that table salt and soda have the same base - sodium. At that time, sodium had not yet been obtained in a free form, and scientists thought that soda was not a chemical compound, but an element, like sulfur or phosphorus.

Duhamel's discovery prompted scientists to use table salt to produce soda. After all, if nature transforms the salt contained in the soil into the soda of soda plants, then why can't a person carry out such a metamorphosis in the laboratory?

In 1775, the French Academy of Sciences announced a prize of 12,000 francs for the best way to obtain artificial soda. Many methods have been proposed for producing soda, but they were all expensive and unprofitable, and chemists continued to look for new ways to produce artificial soda.

In 1789, under the blows of the victorious revolution in France, the absolutist monarchy collapsed. From the first days of the birth of the new system, the French people had to defend the gains of the revolution with weapons in their hands. Surrounded by a ring of hostile states, the young republic was in dire need of ammunition. The basis of black powder, which was then used, was saltpeter; potash was needed to produce it.

In 1794, a government report appeared in Parisian newspapers: “The Republic needs potash for the manufacture of saltpeter, and soda could in many cases replace potash; nature gives us table salt in immeasurable quantities, from which soda can be extracted. Many well-known French chemists responded to this call - more than 30 proposals were received. Leblanc's method was unanimously recognized as the best.

A mixture of Glauber's salt, limestone (or chalk) and coal is heated in large brick kilns. The mass melts with thorough stirring with iron pokers or scrapers. Blue lights appear on the surface of the molten mass, and when they disappear, the alloy is removed from the furnace.

So as a result of the reaction between the constituent parts of the mixture, soda was born. Glauber's salt was obtained by decomposing table salt with sulfuric acid.

Leblanc's invention freed France from foreign dependence, but the fate of the scientist himself was very tragic: in 1806, being in deep poverty, he committed suicide. The talented inventor and scientist could not overcome the heartlessness and greed of capitalist society.

Only some time after the death of Leblanc, the production of sulfur according to his method began to develop rapidly. Soda plants appeared in many European countries, producing hundreds of thousands of tons of soda and other chemical products. However, there were many shortcomings in Leblanc's method. The most significant of these is the abundance of waste products in the form of hydrogen chloride and calcium sulfide.

In the 30s of the last century, a new, simpler and more profitable way of obtaining soda from table salt was found, but almost 60 years passed before it became widespread. The method is as follows. A concentrated solution of table salt is saturated with ammonia, and then carbon dioxide, a product of burning limestone in kilns, is passed through the brine under pressure. Ammonia reacts with carbon dioxide and water to form ammonium bicarbonate. The latter enters into an exchange decomposition reaction with sodium chloride and the resulting bicarbonate of soda precipitates, which is filtered off and calcined. The result is soda ash, carbon dioxide and water. The gas is again used to saturate the brine. From a solution containing ammonium chloride, ammonia is isolated by heating the solution with lime obtained by burning limestone. Ammonia is also returned to the production cycle.

Thus, with the ammonia method of soda production, the amount of waste is much less than with the Leblanc method. Waste is only calcium chloride, which finds some industrial use: calcium chloride solutions are watered on roads to destroy dust, it is introduced into the composition of cooling mixtures, it is used for drying gases, dehydrating ether and other organic liquids, it is used in medicine.

In Russia, the scale of soda production began to expand only from the 80s of the last century, although small soda plants appeared already in the 60s. In 1864 M.P. Prang built a soda plant in Barnaul; at the plant, according to the Leblanc method, soda was obtained from natural Glauber's salt. The latter was mined from the Marmyshan lakes, located in the Kulunda steppe, 200 km from Barnaul.

The problem of obtaining soda by artificial means was of interest to Russian scientists as early as the 18th century. Academician Kirill Laxman in 1764, 11 years earlier than Malherbe and 27 years earlier than Leblanc, received soda from natural Glauber's salt. He was the first to propose replacing soda and potash with this salt in glass production.

At the same time, Russian scientists studied the possibility of industrial use of table salt. Many of them - Kireevsky, Krupsky, Mendeleev and others - ardently advocated the creation of a domestic production of soda. Moreover, even then the production of many important chemical products was associated with it: sulfuric and hydrochloric acids, sodium sulfate, berthollet salt, chlorine. Mendeleev wrote that "it is now impossible to imagine the development of industry without the consumption of soda." The appearance on the market of domestic soda, in his opinion, would also render a service to agriculture. The replacement of potash with soda in many industries would contribute to the conservation of forests.

However, the successful development of soda production in Russia was hampered by a high excise tax on table salt. Despite the persistent demands of scientists and industrialists, the tsarist government for a long time did not want to remove the excise tax on salt. It was not until 1881 that the fetters that fettered the emergence of large-scale soda production were broken, and the results were not long in coming. Two years later, the first large soda plant in the Northern Urals was launched in Berezniki, built by the merchant Lyubimov together with the Belgian firm Solvay. For 35 years from the date of foundation of this plant until the Great October Revolution, 878 thousand g of soda ash was produced at the Bereznikovsky plant.

During the years of Soviet power, the Bereznikovsky plant was reconstructed and expanded, the production of soda increased several times compared to pre-revolutionary. More recently, at the plant, soda, as in tsarist times, was obtained from natural salt brine pumped out of the bowels of the earth. Now it is produced from artificial brine obtained by dissolving potash production waste. This significantly reduced the cost of soda.

In our time, a number of large soda plants operate in the Soviet Union.

The use of soda in the national economy has expanded enormously. Soda is no longer needed only by soap makers, glass makers and textile workers, but also by metallurgists (separation and purification of non-ferrous metals, removal of sulfur from cast iron), dyers, furriers and food workers (production of confectionery and mineral waters, clarification of vegetable oils). A lot of soda is used to soften water used in factories and plants, in steam boilers of locomotives and power plants. Soda serves as a raw material for the production of many chemical products (magnesia, sodium sulfate, sodium fluoride, etc.).

If all the table salt that is processed all over the world for soda per year is loaded into freight cars, then the train would stretch from Moscow to Vladivostok.

Most of the salt consumed by the chemical industry goes to the production of soda, caustic soda (caustic soda) and chlorine. Back in 1883, Russian scientists Lidov and Tikhomirov developed an industrial method for obtaining caustic soda from table salt by electrolysis of its aqueous solutions. In this case, along with caustic soda, chlorine is also obtained. Both of these products are very necessary for many branches of the national economy.

In recent years, salt has not only become a source of chemicals, medicines, fertilizers, explosives, but also acquired some new "professions". It is successfully used to extinguish burning soot, to harden steel products. It is used to accelerate the melting of ice, for the preparation of cooling mixtures used in refrigerators. Salt is needed for clarification of turpentine and rosin, in the production of the highest grades of glove husky. In the tobacco industry, some varieties of tobacco are treated with salt to improve its quality.

During the construction of artificial reservoirs, the walls and bottom of reservoirs are usually protected with clay, lined with concrete or asphalt. However, clay does not completely hold water, and concrete and asphalt are too expensive. It was necessary to find some cheap and at the same time sufficiently waterproof material. Academician A. N. Sokolovsky became interested in this problem several years ago. Studying the properties of soils, he noticed that the soil impregnated with salt does not allow water to pass through. Salt fills the pores of the soil, making it waterproof. Such soils are called salt marshes, often their surface is covered with a thin snow-white coating of salt.

In the steppes of Kazakhstan and the Crimea, in the Caspian Sea and the Dnieper region, small lakes form on salt marshes in early spring, which sometimes do not dry out until the end of summer. Such an artificial "lake" was made in Sokolovsky's laboratory. Soil was poured onto a thin sieve inserted into the funnel and washed with a solution of table salt; an artificial salt marsh was formed. But after all, in natural conditions, the salt marsh is watered by rains, melted spring waters are washed. Therefore, fresh water was poured through the funnel. At first, it leaked quite quickly - about 30-50 drops per minute, but gradually the drops fell less and less, and finally they were gone. Water does not seep through a thin layer of earth - only 3-4 mm, which has turned into a salt lick.

Therefore, if you cover the walls and bottom of any reservoir with a thin layer of earth soaked in salt, there will be no leakage. The experiments carried out by Sokolovsky on salinization of irrigation canals in some collective farms of the Volga region turned out to be successful - the leakage of water completely stopped.

Salinization of water bodies is beginning to be widely used in Ukraine, in the Lower Volga region, and Uzbekistan. Salt successfully replaces asphalt and concrete. In addition, soil treatment with a salt solution is much cheaper than covering with asphalt or concrete. Indeed, for solonetzation, you can take dirty, non-edible salt, waste from some chemical plants.

Salt provides invaluable services to builders. For example, in winter, during the construction of the Bratsk hydroelectric power station, clay soil froze and turned into hard stone. Even excavators and bulldozers could not cope with the frozen ground. The Leningrad Civil Engineering Institute has developed a way to protect clay soil from freezing. Plots of land on which it is necessary to dig ditches or pits in winter are thickly sprinkled with table salt in autumn, and then even in the most severe frosts the earth remains soft.

Salt is a substance of inexhaustible possibilities. Already now there are more than a thousand different ways to use it. And how many of them, and how many unexpected ones, will appear in our atomic age!..

Table salt is an inorganic compound that consists of sodium and chloride ions. In crushed form, it is white crystals of various sizes. In most cases, it has impurities that can change the color of the salt from light brown to gray.

Types of table salt

According to the genesis and method of obtaining table salt is divided into:

• Stone;
• evaporation;
• Ozernaya;
• Basin.

Rock salt, or halite, is a mineral that consists of cubic crystals. It is the main source of table salt, as well as a raw material for the production of chlorine, sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid. It is located in sedimentary rocks, the thickness of halite deposits reaches 350 meters. It differs from other types of salt in a relatively small amount of impurities.

Evaporated salt is obtained in the process of evaporation of natural brines, which are extracted from the bowels of the earth, or artificial brines, which are made by dissolving halite in water that is injected into wells. After purification of the brines, they are evaporated in vacuum apparatuses.

Lake salt, or self-planting salt, is mined from the bottom of lakes. It is called sedimentary because it precipitates due to an excess of salt in the water. This type of table salt is distinguished by high hygroscopicity and humidity.

Pool salt, or garden salt, is obtained from ocean or sea water, which is transferred to artificial, large pools in the southern regions. The water evaporates and the salt precipitates.

According to the type of processing, table salt is divided into: fine-crystalline, ground, unground and iodized; quality: extra, premium, first and second grade.

Deposits and production

The natural reserves of table salt on Earth are almost inexhaustible.

The main types of common salt deposits: rock salt deposits, ocean, sea and lake waters, brines and ground waters, solonchaks. The largest Russian and Ukrainian deposits are Verkhnekamskoye, Seryogovskoye, Astrakhanskoye and Artemovskoye.

In our time, table salt is mined by the mine method (the most common), crystallization, freezing, and evaporation.

The use of table salt

Salt is of primary importance in the food industry in the form of seasoning. In its pure form, it is used in metallurgy for the roasting of ores and the purification of metals. It is used even in transport - sprinkling the bottom of wagons to protect coke or manganese ore during transportation. Also, table salt is used to treat leather products in order to prevent their decay.