Give me a crash course in . . . salt

Weren't we always told too much salt was bad for us?Technically, yes. But the salt Ireland needs right now is not the sort we use to spruce up our chips. We're talking industrial salt, and tonnes of it, needed in an effort to keep our roads free from ice and snow.

This salt is part of the sodium-chloride family and cuts through ice and snow like the Gooch taking on a full back line. The salt breaks down the ice, leaving only natural residue, and although it may look white from a distance this type of salt is actually more yellow in colour. Think of it as a step up from sea salt, just with bigger crystals, and extracted for our use from mines mostly in north Africa. There’s also a mine in Fermanagh, but were we to buy from there year round we’d be broke. Well, more broke.

So how much of it do we actually need?In a normal year, say 2008, we used about 50,000 tonnes of salt on our roads. Last year was no ordinary year, and we needed 120,000 tonnes to keep our primary routes clear. This cost us about €10 million, between the salt and shipping and distribution costs. We had 25,000 tonnes left over by the summer, when we pre-ordered another 80,000 tonnes; only 55,000 was delivered, which cost us about €5 million, while a further €4.5 million was spent building depots and storage facilities in 18 counties, to help us store all this salt.

Is our salt stock running out?After buying another 5,000 tonnes from a Carrickfergus mine we had 85,000 tonnes of salt before winter set in, and have gone through about 75,000 tonnes. We bought 5,000 tonnes from Fermanagh, so by Thursday night we had about 15,000 tonnes left in the country. Fear not, though, because a delivery of 26,000 tonnes is expected to arrive by the end of next week, and a further 30,000 tonnes by the middle of the following week. By end of January we are expected to have ordered and had delivered up to 100,000 tonnes of salt. Our total spend on salt this year will then be over €10 million.

Can't we use something other than salt?What about sand from our beaches, for example? We can and we do is the short answer. Salt is good on ice, but, for snow, a mixture of salt and sand is the most effective way of dispersing what is on the road. Grit is a common term used for many refined materials, which could be as fine as sand or slightly less refined in some cases. Sometimes, when our salt stocks are running low, local authorities are told to keep mixing and spare the salt. For localised areas around our homes, house salt should work fine on footpaths, while a ready-made source of effective grit is cat litter – unused, of course.

Is salt now worth its weight in gold?The most recent shipment due here left north Africa last Tuesday and is expected to arrive by Wednesday or Thursday. We now have to compete with other European countries that also need significant salt stocks as our harsh winters continue. Okay, so it's not as valuable as other minerals, but the demand for salt has increased right across Europe. Having to fight with our European neighbours for access to salt is nothing new, though. Indeed, some would have us believe that the Celts may have originated in the small Austrian town of Hallstatt (hall is the German word for salt), which was known for its ancient salt mines. Much of their early power and wealth was based on access to salt, proving that there are times when having too much salt is a good thing.