Rock salt - global deposits and resources

On all continents, rock salt deposits have been formed since Precambrian and are still being formed today. The resources of salt are huge but their distribution is very unequal with most of them located in the northern hemisphere.

A majority of commercially mined and used salt comes from deposits formed in the following periods:

  • Permian e.g.:
    – European Zechstein Basin (Poland, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, United Kingdom),
    – Fore-Uralian Depression (Russia);
  • Triassic e.g: – Aquitanian Basin (France);
  • Jurassic e.g: – Mexican Gulf deposits (USA);
  • Paleogene and Neogene e.g.:
    – Alsatian Basin (France),
    – Ebro Basin (Spain),
  • Miocene Basins along the boundary of and within the Carpathians (Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia).

The largest deposits are located in North America (the United States, Canada) and in Asia (India, Russia). Poland holds the second largest (after Germany) rock salt resources in Europe.

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Salt lake, Altiplano Plateau, Bolivia. Photo by: Krzysztof Bukowski

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Salt pan Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. Fot./Photo by: Krzysztof Bukowski