Pink Himalayan Salt

Origin

Pink Himalayan salt is rock salt that is mostly mined at the Khewra Salt Mine in Khewra, Jhelum District, Punjab, Pakistan. The Khewra Salt Mine is the world's second largest salt mine and produces more than 350,000 tons a year of about 99% pure halite. The salt comes from a thick layer of Ediacaran to early Cambrian evaporites of the Salt Range Formation. Rock salt comes from mines resulting from the presence of oceans hundreds of millions of years ago, and the pink salt of the Himalayas is one example.

Composition

Samples of Khewra salt were between 96% and 99% sodium chloride, with traces of calcium, iron, zinc, chromium, magnesium and sulfates, each below 1%. Some salt crystals from this region are off-white to transparent, while the trace minerals in some veins of salt give it a pink, reddish, or beet-red color. The pink salt of the Himalayas owes its color to the iron it contains. Himalayan salt does not have lower sodium than conventional table salt; the levels are similar. Sodium chloride is an ionic compound with the formula NaCl, a 1:1 ratio of sodium and chloride ions, and it occurs as the mineral halite.

Uses

Its main use is as a food additive in place of refined table salt; it is also used for cooking, food presentation, decorative lamps and spa treatments. Slabs of salt are used as serving dishes, baking stones and griddles. Salt from Khewra is also used to make decorative items such as lamps, vases, ashtrays and statues. There is no scientific basis for the health benefits claimed for it.

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