From the Beeb http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8438717.stm 

Ministers have insisted there are "very substantial" supplies of salt and grit for Scotland's roads as some councils say they are running low.

Fife Council said it had run out of supplies before several tonnes arrived on Monday afternoon.

According to the Beeb there are three major salt mines in the UK including one in N Ireland. Salt Union is one (Cheshire), is the other Boulby given it produces rock salt as a side product to potash?

---

From Wiki.

"As a by-product the mine produces rock salt, used across the region as a de-icing agent on roads in winter conditions".

The three mines are apparently in Cheshire, Antrim and Cleveland - would that be Boulby?

Presumably, they spend many months of the year trying to persuade councils to buy a significant stock of road salt; get very annoyed when the orders don't come through until early December; and then put their head in their hands when they get telephone calls after the first week of a cold spell along the lines of "We've run out of road salt,can you deliver some tomorrow?"

The answer, I suppose, at this time of year would be: "Certainly, we have a large pile of it: how much are you willing to pay?" 😉

---

I was informed today that short of salt cat litter works a treat. Tescos apparently had a run on it and ran out early as people covered their driveways. Cats must think it's their birthday. Bit expensive to do all of Cornwall. 🙂

---

Yes its Boulby.

A fortnight ago the que of tippers to get into Salt Union was in the scores of vehicles.
On several days they were queing through the town with the Police diverting traffic around parked up trucks.

Tight arsed councils refuse to buy in stocks in anticipation, the 3 mines do not have huge stockholding facilities, its a simle equation.

On the plus side, plenty of work for salt miners this winter 🙂

I was shovelling a pile of grit trying to get us up Boulby Banks the other week, within sight of the mine. What's the betting the rock salt came from Cheshire or Antrim?

The problem Boulby as it they will not up Salt production, they produce what they need to as a by-product. I spent some time working on a salt crew up there, Salt mining takes place at the weekend, with the weekdays being spent installing support, conveyors and other services. At the time we were producing about 7000 tonnes a weekend.

If the salt roadways are driven to far in advance of Potash production the chances are the tunnel will close as the stress would not be relieved by the potash workings above.

In Cornwall we are generally in a better position than most for two reasons: -

1. We don't use as much as its milder
2. We have bulk deliveries, due to the distance from the salt producers, it is cheaper to bring it in by boat from Northern Ireland. Cornwall council took their 1st delivery in October, which was 4000 tonnes, that will generally last the winter, however should we have a prolonged cold snap, the council have time to react by placing an order in sufficeint time. This is how Cornwall ended up selling Salt to other parts of the country last year.

I would have thought Boulby will be doing the same as last year, when they run out of salt and could not mine it faster enough to fill orders. And that was import several hundred thousand tons from there sister mine in spain!

The problem Boulby as it they will not up Salt production, they produce what they need to as a by-product. I spent some time working on a salt crew up there, Salt mining takes place at the weekend, with the weekdays being spent installing support, conveyors and other services. At the time we were producing about 7000 tonnes a weekend.

If the salt roadways are driven to far in advance of Potash production the chances are the tunnel will close as the stress would not be relieved by the potash workings above.

In Cornwall we are generally in a better position than most for two reasons: -

1. We don't use as much as its milder
2. We have bulk deliveries, due to the distance from the salt producers, it is cheaper to bring it in by boat from Northern Ireland. Cornwall council took their 1st delivery in October, which was 4000 tonnes, that will generally last the winter, however should we have a prolonged cold snap, the council have time to react by placing an order in sufficeint time. This is how Cornwall ended up selling Salt to other parts of the country last year.

A lot of the roads around Truro were not gritted and iced solid a few days ago. I nearly had a few spectacular offs on the way to work.

Back in my neck of the woods now, there are ice patches everywhere.

Apart from the inability of CCC to do anything effectively, I'm wondering, are they hanging on to the salt in order to flog it to Devon when they run out, in a hope to fill their £18m black hole by the end of the tax year.

One of the things that would help would be knocking a 0 off the end of scouser matey's pay. The ******* nerve having a frigging scouser in charge of the CCC. Christ, perhaps he's nicked the salt.

The solution is simple, do as they do in Germany!
In the evening the gritter waggon comes out & spreads.......grit! About 5mm diameter grit to be exact which gives a better grip on the roads. Later in the day after the frost/ice has melted the road sweeper comes along & collects all the grit back up for reuse.
Its not exactly rocket surgery is it!
.....Lister;~)

---

The Council around here make sure they have plenty of salt at the end of the summer, not in January :lol: :lol:

---

Stuey - you cynic! Anyways hes a geordie! The problem is although they have no shortage of salt, they have continually cut back on the ability to spread the salt! They only have 12 wagons now! By any stretch of the imagination 12 wagons are going to struggle with all of cornwalls roads! But I guess theu needed the money for salaries!

I can remember a time when councils used to stock pile rock salt over the summer months. The principle is outdated now of course in our "just in time society" administered by faceless accountants, sorry Financial Controllers.

What happened was in order to try and supply continuous work for their workforce, salt companies would have summer offers, in modern parlance buy one get one free. This arrangement was beneficial to both the vendor and purchaser. The only snag is that huge stockpiles of rock salt do gradually dissipate over time with wind and rain. No matter this could be halted by throwing tarpaulins over them.
One such landmark I remember well was at the junction of the Longnor/Monyash turn offs on the Buxton - Ashbourne Road. This has over the years virtually disappeared. I suspect that this is not only due to accounting but may well also have something to do with being a blot on the Peak District Landscape, toots to the people who have to live there so long as it looks pretty.

So the salt companies have become more diverse in their quest to remain in business and as councils no longer pay up front and stockpile such commodities one can hardly blame the salt companies for not producing huge stockpiles themselves. What is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander. Although I'm sure there is an eco tree hugging nimby out there who would argue otherwise :lol:

So for now I'll just sit back and throw another log on the coal fire, turn up the LPG central heating as I would rather not be a few column millimeters in an obituary. Later on once the snowing has stopped I might fire up the old 4X4 and drive down to the village for a pint of milk 😎 😎

Oh yes I nearly forgot, I eat meat and fish every day of the week and if any more shops close in our village I'll have to drive another extra 5 miles a week to buy food.

It's no good I should really be at work.

There isn't much incentive on councils to use common sense and anticipate the arrival of winter conditions- after all our glorious leader and the rest of his useless gang have spent the past few years persuading them, obviously with some success, that winter will no longer occur due to the greenhouse gas emitting activities of the ignorant masses over whom they preside.

Hopefully we might just see a realisation that global warming/climate change was nothing more than a tax-raising scam all along.

The ignorant masses? You mean those who have no concept of what constitutes good science, or bad science, and can't see how manipulative people with every incentive to do nothing will do or say anything in order to take advantage of that ignorance? Shall we talk about salt mines, or politics?

I have just come over to here for a look, I have been posting on ME and am in full steam tonight on the the thread "Its snowing".
I am surpised to see that this thread is going in the same direction as the one on ME.

Mr Buckhill and others, you may want to take a look.

http://www.mine-explorer.co.uk/bbs/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=2832 

Admins, forgiving souls as they are, will forgive me for this.

EDIT
Struggled forever to get the link to work, NG.
Use Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V, Windows copy/paste into your browser.

---

Personally, I'd rather those who like screwing up a good message board with politics did so somewhere else. This site is a breath of fresh air where we can all be real anoraks together.

If you are refering to me Peter, we are in complete agreement.

Yes, its politics.

NOT science.

---

If you are refering to me Peter, we are in complete agreement.

Yes, its politics.

NOT science.

Only if you want it to be, Roy.

A good answer Peter, I compliment your sharp mind.

However:
On one point it’s a case of time will tell, and nothing that we can do or say will change that.

On the other, I have to agree that as I have posted on ME, basically religion and politics are very divisive and should probably be best out on these websites that should be devoted to mining matters.

I doubt that you will see a problem with what I am saying here, and I certainly have no problem with doing as I say rather than doing as I do.
And I have only done because others have brought the subject up.

---