The Salt We Mine
At Boulby, we extract rock salt, a natural resource with a variety of applications.
The salt, which is formed over 250 million years ago, is an essential raw material that contributes to the health and wellbeing of humans, flora & fauna. Consequently, its purity and quality make it highly sought after by customers across the UK and beyond.
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Introducing Salt
ICL Boulby is renowned for being the world’s first and only producer of Polysulphate. However, another crucial aspect of the site’s operations lies in the production and distribution of salt—a critical component serving a wide array of industries. ICL is one of the largest suppliers of de-icing salt to UK Local Authorities & Highways Contractors. When winter roads become impassable, ambulances, fire engines, police and other emergency vehicles can’t perform their life-saving services. Our ability to travel and explore new locations, visit families and friends, attend appointments, commute to our workplaces, and receive goods and services can also be severely hampered.
We have long known the incredible benefits that road salt plays in ensuring our safety and mobility during the winter months. Salt keeps roads open and safe!
As Europe’s first sustainable mining company, ICL has have been mining rock salt for over 50 years, having access to multi million tonnes of mineral deposits thus securing our position as a leading producer for many years to come.
ICL operates two rock salt mines, located in Boulby, United Kingdom & Súria, Spain. We adopt continuous mining techniques for our salt with downstream crushing and sieving processes. Utilising a variety of sieve decks, we cover multiple international market standards. Through the addition of anti-caking agents, we provide our customers with a free-flowing product that’s ready to use as soon as frost is forecast.
The Production Process
The salt production process at ICL Boulby begins deep underground, where highly skilled teams extract the mineral using advanced mining techniques. Once mined, the salt is brought to the surface for processing. The product is then processed by the surface operations team, this involves crushing and screening the run of mine salt into two size ranges – 0-6mm and 0-10mm to meet the specification requirements of our customers and to a British standard 3247.
Introducing Polysulphate
Polyhalite was formed approximately 260 million years ago during the Permian era, when Europe was located much further south. At that time, Boulby was positioned at the edge of a vast, shallow ocean known as the Zechstein Sea. The hot and arid conditions of the era caused the water to evaporate faster than it could be replenished, resulting in the deposition of polyhalite and halite minerals that we now extract.