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Salt is essential for human life. A well-known food ingredient, salt is also critical for many industries. The majority of the salt Rio Tinto produces is used by the chemical industry, where it helps make materials like glass, paper, plastics, textiles and even soaps and detergents. Some of our salt is also used to process foods and de-ice roads.
Our Dampier Salt operations in Western Australia are the world’s largest exporter of seaborne salt – meaning salt that is produced from evaporating seawater, as opposed to being mined as a solid mineral. We export more than 10 million tonnes of salt every year, with most of it going to customers in Asia and the Middle East.
Dampier Salt is one of our oldest businesses and uses a unique and sustainable production process that relies almost entirely on the power of the sun and wind.
The shallow evaporation flats at Dampier have the potential to produce salt almost infinitely. The operation relies on natural processes of evaporation over an area equivalent to 27,900 soccer fields (19,500 hectares) to transform seawater into salt, predominantly used for industrial purposes. The million tonnes of seawater pumped over these shallow flats every day has created an important habitat that supports a variety of wading birds, including over 1% of the world populations of the red-capped plover and red-necked stint. Similarly, the Oriental plover and sharp-tailed sandpiper are occasionally spotted here. The site is designated a Key Biodiversity Area by BirdLife Australia.
As the sun and wind evaporate the water over months of exposure, we are left with a salty crust when salt crystals begin to form. Once dry, a specialised harvester collects the salt and transfers it to 320 tonne trucks for transfer to the washing plant. Here the salt is cleaned of impurities and stockpiled based on end-use specifications. From these stockpiles it is loaded onto ships at our on-site dock and transported to customers around the world.
Salt is a raw material and in industrial use helps make chlorine, caustic soda, and soda ash, all of which are used in processing and manufacturing of other products, including:
PVC & Polyutherane
Glass
Detergents & Soaps
Textiles
Industrial Chemicals
Road De-icing
E: Salt & Gypsum Sales
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With the exception of the use of cookies, Rio Tinto generally does not seek to collect personal data through this website. However if you choose to provide personal data to Rio Tinto through this website (for example, by sending us an email), we will process that personal data to answer your query and if relevant, to manage our business relationship with you or your company. We won't process that personal data for other purposes except where required to meet our legal obligations or otherwise as authorised by law and notified to you.
If you choose to subscribe to our media releases or other communications, you can unsubscribe at any time (by following the instructions in the email or by contacting us).
With your consent, our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.
As some data privacy laws regulate IP addresses and other information collected through the use of cookies as personal data, Rio Tinto’s processing of such personal data needs to comply with its Data Privacy Standard (see Part 1 of our Privacy Policy), and also applicable data privacy laws.
With the exception of the use of cookies (explained below), Rio Tinto generally does not seek to collect personal data through this website. However if you choose to provide personal data to Rio Tinto through this website (for example, by sending us an email), we will process that personal data to answer your query and if relevant, to manage our business relationship with you or your company. We won't process that personal data for other purposes except where required to meet our legal obligations or otherwise as authorised by law and notified to you.
Part 1 of this Privacy Policy contains the Rio Tinto Data Privacy Standard, which provides an overview of Rio Tinto’s approach to personal data processing. There is additional information in the appendices to the Data Privacy Standard, including information about disclosures, trans-border data transfers, the exercise of data subject rights and how to make complaints or obtain further information relating to Rio Tinto’s processing of your personal data.
If you choose to subscribe to our media releases or other communications, you can unsubscribe at any time (by following the instructions in the email or by contacting us at digital.comms@riotinto.com).
With your consent, our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.
As some data privacy laws regulate IP addresses and other information collected through the use of cookies as personal data, Rio Tinto’s processing of such personal data needs to comply with its Data Privacy Standard (see Part 1 of this Privacy Policy), and also applicable data privacy laws.
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