NaCl – The Racalmuto (AG) Salt Mine
When we talk about food we often forget about one of the fundamental ingredients of most recipes, one of those ingredients that, if dosed badly, can influence more the result of the taste. An ingredient that overcomes cultural barriers and is part of all the kitchens of the world: salt. In addition to adding flavor to the dishes, salt, used in moderation, is also essential for life. It has always been produced and traded among the peoples of the world. Now we hardly notice it anymore but anciently it was one of the fundamental products of exchange, the Roman legionaries were paid mostly with salt so much that the Italian word for wage is “salario” that derives precisely from salt. These photos tell of the largest Italian salt mine from which about 70% of the food salt used in Italy derives.
The Racalmuto mine is carved into a hill 800 meters high and descends up to 200 meters below sea level through miles of tunnels on several levels. 
Despite the hundreds of tons of salt being mined every day, only a dozen people are working inside the mine, including miners, electricians, mechanics, geologists and truck drivers. 
Two large milling machines work alternating inside the mine digging in the salt, of which the hill is entirely composed, tunnels 15 meters wide and 6 meters high. 
Water infiltrations in the salt layers, which are five million years old, leave streaks that form patterns that sometimes look like the ancient cave paintings of primitive men. 
To allow men to breathe pure and dustless air, two very large engines pump cubic meters of air per second into the tunnels. 
A geologist follows the excavations to direct the milling along the veins where the salt is the purest and it is possible to use it for food and also to follow the projects of excavation paths studied. 
The lighting lights inside the galleries form strange shadows on the walls that make you think of Plato’s Cave Myth. 
Inside the mine there is a shed that serves as an office, sacred and profane are mixed on the walls 
As the excavations proceed, the large plastic tube that carries the clean air, pushed by large fans, inside the mine must be moved. 
Some neon lights are the only sources of illumination for the mine 
A dozen trucks are constantly shuttling inside out to bring salt dug out of the mine. In the background the large tube that serves to convey clean air into the mine 
Despite the size of the mine and the amount of salt that is extracted daily, the large milling machines make the number of workers needed very small 
The milling machine digs at such a speed that it fills a 30-ton truck in three minutes by advancing the tunnel by half a meter. 
The salt hill is now crossed by 7 levels of tunnels, each 15 meters wide and 6 meters high. For safety reasons, a layer of 3 meters is left between the levels below. Every year about 2 kilometers of new tunnels are excavated 
A worker opens the large metal gate that closes the entrance to the mine. The temperature inside is constantly around 20 degrees while in summer the outside temperature easily reaches 40 degrees 
In the packaging factory, around 40 workers work, twice as many in the mine, who are busy selecting and packing salt for the many customers of the mine. Most of the extracted salt is intended for food use but the less pure one is sold for other uses such as antifreeze in the streets or for use in dishwashers 
A worker checks the machine that packs the one kilo packages to check that they are all perfect and that the machine does not jam. If it fails, packages are destroyed and the salt recovered for non-food uses 
Outside the mine is the factory where the salt is packaged for sale in packets and bags ranging from a kilo to 1500 kilos for the food industries. 
At the end the salt pallets are loaded on large trucks ready to leave for all of Italy. 
The large 1500 kg bags of salt destined for large food factories are temporarily stored in the square behind the factory waiting to be loaded on the TIR. In the background the hill composed mostly of rock salt deposits where the mine is dug