Rock Salt Mining Rock Salt Mining Salt occurs naturally in underground deposits, and occasionally in surface deposits in arid areas, as the mineral halite . Ancient salt deposits are widespread. A number of these salt deposits are mined for halite, commonly known as rock salt. Salt deposits formed as horizontal salt beds in ancient oceans and were later buried deeply beneath sediments as mountains eroded.
Geologists build complex models of salt deposits .
Both bedded salt deposits and salt domes or diapirs are mined by drilling and blasting. The occasional surface deposits can also be mined. Bedded salt deposits are nearly horizontal, although some contain fault zones and other anomalies. Salt beds range in thickness from a few tens of feet to several thousands of feet. The result is a vertically elongated salt deposit of a mile or more in diameter and perhaps 15,000 to 20,000 feet in vertical length.