Lake Grassmere Salt Works. Marlborough. New Zealand.
S 41° 43.300 E 174° 08.100
60G E 261684 N 5377158
The snowy white stacks of salt at the Lake Grassmere Salt Works are a familiar landmark, readily visible by day and night from the Blenheim - Christchurch highway.
Waymark Code: WMCKX5
Location: South Island, New Zealand
Date Posted: 09/18/2011
Views: 11
New Zealand's Marlborough province is renowned for receiving more than its share of sunshine. Both this fact and the strong, drying Nor' Westerly winds and large areas of suitable flat land at Grassmere persuaded the late George W. Skellerup to establish his solar saltworks in 1943.
Lake Grassmere is a shallow lagoon close to the sea with very high salinity and prone to strong warm winds. All these things make it an ideal place for natural salt extraction. The lake has been divided into evaporation ponds. Seawater is pumped in, and moved between ponds over several months, increasing in salinity with each successive evaporation period. As salinity increases, crystallised salt forms and is extracted.
During the refining process, the salt is rewashed, crushed, dried and screened before being packed in 25 kilo bags, or bulk bags containing 1-1.2 tonnes. Salt destined for the domestic table salt market accounts for a very small fraction of the harvest. Some of this product is iodised and processed at the Cerebos Skellerup packing plant adjacent to Lake Grassmere.
A large range of salts with slightly different chemical compositions, grain sizes and shapes are produced. All table salt produced in New Zealand is solar salt, and both iodised and non-iodised table salt is available. Iodised salt contains added iodine (to prevent goitre) and silicon dioxide (to make the salt run). Specialty salts, including flaky salt, are also produced at Lake Grassmere.
Kind: Salt Evaporation Pond
Is the place still active?: yes
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