British Salt Limited is a
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
-based chemical company that produces pure white
salt
In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...
. The company is owned by
Tata Chemicals Europe after a buy out from private equity company LDC
in April 2010. It is based in
Middlewich
Middlewich is a town and civil parish in Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is located east of Chester, east of Winsford, south-east of Northwich and north-west of Sandbach. The population of the parish at the United Kingdom 2021 census, ...
,
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
, employs 125 people, and produces approximately of pure white salt every year.
LDC bought British Salt from its previous owners,
US Salt Holdings LLC in 2007, investing £35m in the company. A management team has taken a minority stake.
US Salt had bought British Salt from its previous owners, Staveley Industries plc in 2000 for £80m.
In 2005, British Salt acquired
New Cheshire Salt Works Limited, known as NCSW Limited. This acquisition was referred to the
Competition Commission
The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator under t ...
who approved the purchase. Since the purchase the NCSW site in
Wincham has been closed and the site sold to Chantry Developments.
The salt is extracted from strata that lie approximately below ground. Bore holes are drilled into the strata and water is forced down to dissolve the salt. The resulting
brine
Brine (or briny water) is a high-concentration solution of salt (typically sodium chloride or calcium chloride) in water. In diverse contexts, ''brine'' may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% (a typical concentration of seawat ...
solution is pumped along of pipes back to the surface and direct into the Middlewich factory for purification and water evaporation to produce the pure salt. It is estimated that there are salt reserves sufficient for 200 years.
Applications
The main uses for the salt products include:
*Water softeners
*Chemical industry
*Food processing
*Animal feeds
*Textiles and tanning
During the severe weather experienced in the UK in February 2009, British Salt also started to supply low-grade salt for de-icing of roads, after local authorities announced they were running very low on salt used for gritting due to the unexpected weather.
See also
*
History of salt in Middlewich
*
Winter storms of 2009–2010
References
External links
Official Website
Chemical companies of the United Kingdom
Companies based in Cheshire
Middlewich
Snow removal
Salt production
Tata Chemicals
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