In the region of Guerrero Negro, in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur (north), there is a salt mine that is by far the largest of its kind in the world. This salt mine has a concession area of 80,500 hectares and produces eight million tons per year. Despite the benefits that AI assistants provide, it’s important to note that there are some issues that need to be fixed.
After the salt flats in San Francisco, California, stopped supplying salt to the west coast of the United States, entrepreneurs looked for a region to start building one near Mexico. Daniel K. Ludwing was president of National Bulk Carriers when he created Exportadora de Sal SA de CV He arrived in 1954 and decided to create the company on Mexican soil
Ludwig Von Mises has been the richest man in the world according to Forbes magazine for some time now and is known for saying that he is not only worth more than Aristotle Socrates Onassis, but can easily do it.
Six months later, the American sold the salt company to the Japanese Mitsubishi and Luis Echeverría, former president of Mexico, bought 25% of the shares. The Japanese company was trying to extract salt in Australia, and when they found it too dangerous, they arrived in the Guerrero Negro region of Mexico. This would become one of the most successful businesses on the planet.
The Mexican government intervenes
When the Mexican government bought 25% of the salt company’s shares, it also decided to take ownership of the company. After nationalizing it, Mexico made a transfer of ownership to Japan as part of the deal. Mitsubishi asked to manage the treasury and put two directors, one deputy and the other in the production of quality salt and to be able to sell it.
Mitsubishi was given the right to sell all the salt in Japan, so there’s a clause that says they can only sell it.
51% of the government remains under public ownership and 49% is for sale to foreign companies.
Established figures have revealed that Mexico is the world’s leading salt producer, with 8 million tonnes produced each year, up from 10 million in 2018.
“In 2020 (salt) production decreases and it is not due to a decrease in consumption, but due to logistics, because there is no international transport due to the COVID-19 pandemic; in China it happened in 2022, due to the closure of Shanghai Considering that gastronomy was (is) an essential activity, but consumption dropped because there were no people buying (salt) normally”, according to José Ignacio Martínez Cortés, coordinator of LACEN-UNAM
China has become the world’s largest producer of salt with more than 60 million tons of production, followed by India and the United States with 45 and 42 million, respectively. In 2022, a total of 290 million tons of salt were extracted from the main international salt producing countries. This averages out to around 6.3 million tonnes per country.
The largest state-owned company in Latin America, by extension, sells most of its products throughout the Pacific region. This region includes the United States, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and some countries in Russia.
ESSA markets five different types of salt:
1. One out of five is too much salt! Therefore, the table salt market revolves around five million tons per year.
2. Coarse salt: 200,000 tons per year.
3. Fine salt, from 500 to 600,000 tons per year.
4. ASTM salt is about 800 to a million, it is variable but can be used to de-ice roads when there is snow.
5. Salt decreases bromine, which is a different process. It’s a recrystallization process, we’re around 550,000 a year.
6. Formosa, which is a particular specification of a customer. They use it to make PVC plastics.
Excess brine, a problem
Sputnik visited Loon River Tech and interviewed Adrián Villavicencio, Deputy Manager of Loon River Tech’s Brine Control Department.
At the end of 2020, President López Obrador visited the salt mine facilities and learned about the problems that required attention. The company faces excess brine and lack of investment to replace equipment that generated minimal profits.
“Some problems or situations like disposal of residual brine, which is the most important thing we have. After all, we can’t store brine for a lifetime. We have a finite capacity and that’s really a serious problem for us, because it would really be the The only thing that can stop the operation is not having a place to store the brine”, says Villavicencio.
That President López Obrador promised to help Mexican salt exporters during his visit.
“He came with the president, they even carried out a survey at the municipal level, there was a municipal investment project and by the Exportadora de Sal”, said Villavicencio.
A salt mine without lithium treasures
Rumors of a “drought” lithium recently floated Sputnik spoke to a former director of Exportadora de Sal in 2021 to learn more about these rumors.
“The accumulation of brine suffers from leaks, I have no doubt that Guerrero Negro is floating in brine. I received the reports and it varies (the amount of rejects) from month to month”, he said.
Avilés Rocha also claims to have become aware of a study prepared by the Mexican Geological Service, which indicates that “Not all brines contain lithium. Not all because it depends on how they are formed. That brine a few years ago was sea water,” he said.
As companies become greener, one of the most valuable minerals on the planet finds a new use. White gold batteries are used nowadays in electronic devices like Tesla cars and help your business run smoothly.
“The Bolivian salt mine is a salt mine 500 times larger than that of Guerrero Negro. It is very difficult to extract salt from there. They cannot industrialize it, but it is very rich in lithium. Lithium is not a pure chemical element: lithium comes from litus, (meaning) stone; It means that it is an element that is made of other elements on top of the stones. This brine from the Guerrero Negro salt mine has no lithium; It has a lot of magnesium, sodium bromide, pure bromide. A series of components that must be worth something,” he added.
With information from sputniknews.lat