Rock Salt And Industrial Salt

Shamin Rasheed
Feb 23, 2017 · 3 min read

Rock salt is the mineral form of sodium chloride, otherwise identified as table salt or referred to as “halite,” when used industrially. There are various types and grades of salt. Therefore it’s always a good idea to have a basic understanding of how rock salt originates. Like gasoline and natural gas, rock salt is also an important natural resource that exists on the earth. The rock salt is available in massive amounts, and all levels of purity are useful for one industry or another.
Rock salt is often found in places where there was once an inland lake that would have been dried up and covered by thousands of years of sedimentation and geological formations. As the year’s pass, these deposits begin to crystallize and often contain minerals and impurities from the surrounding soil. But it is not necessary that Rock salt form from ancient lakes. There are also other sources of salt that are pushed up through the earth due to volcanic forces, thereby, creating unusual geological deposits limited to unique areas. These are often mined in the same manner as more typical formations, creating underground chambers which are carefully engineered for controlled mining activities. Rock salts appear to be discolored caused by mineral impurities, or caused by the bending of light through the salt lattice. Mostly rock salts are not used for cooking purposes because they consume long time to dissolve. Most rock salt is not consumable but often used in culinary processes, which do not want the salt as a direct ingredient.
Rock salt often contains impurities. Therefore for Purification methods, rock salt must be separated from pure forms before it may be used. As mentioned earlier, rock salt is not safe to be consumed directly by humans or animals, but through indirect manufacturing processes, often changing the chemical properties of other materials. Some of the ways in which rock salt is extracted to surface are through explosions to wells of hot water, although the most common are the pillar and chamber technique.
There are so many uses in and around us for the rock salt. It could stock it in huge bags for the purpose of keeping down the ice on the roads in winter, or it could even be used for ice creams. There are many uses for rock salt in day to day life whether it is industrial or domestic, the rock salt finds its own importance of utilization. We commonly see the rock salt and table salt. The main difference between rock and table salt would be in size. In the case of Rock salt, they form large, chunky crystals, whereas, small crystals are seen in the case of table salt. Rock salts like that of table salt also have an assortment of evidence minerals that can have an influence on how it behaves chemically. Rock salt is also used to change the properties of water or other materials used in manufacturing.
Since the source of rock salt often determines its grade, and therefore indicates the proper use. Choosing the right rock salt supplier is the next best thing to being a specialist on rock salt itself.

Know more about rock sal and Industrial salt at wasitgroup.