Today, I want to show you a video about the largest salt lakes in Europe:
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http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/programas-de-tve/comando-actualidad-negocio-del-frio/2360981/
The presenter (Sara Lozano): “Vincent and John, you are the Industrial Director and Head of Production. Which is the production, that this company has, these salt lakes?”.
Juan (John): “Around 650,000 tonnes per year”
Sara: “What percentage of all these tons, is intended to roads, to prevent the formation of ice sheets?”
Vicente (Vincent): “Almost half, Is not it?”
Juan: “Almost half ... well, not only for Spain, eh? ...... for Europe and Spain the half of the production”
Sara: “Oops ..it is falling out there ... this is not danger, right?, of release ...”
Juan: “Well ... when we are working here, usually with a retro we are dropping the lot, so there is no risk”
Sara: “In northern Europe is there no salt mine?”
Juan: “No”
Sara: “Does the cold, do not temperatures allow this process?”
Juan: “Maritime outputs, no, and, in some countries, it does not even exist salt from a mine”
Sara: “John, What is this one that you have here?”
Juan: “From here comes a conveyor line, approximately 2 km long, reaching to the port”
Sara: “And there, you load the ships, ranging north of Europe, we said”
Juan: “Exactly, exactly”
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Sara: “And where are we going now?”
Juan: “Now, let us take the canoe to approach the mining machine, to see how the salt is collected”
Sara: “Do we go up?”
Juan: “Come in”
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Juan: “We have one water meter deep. Then, all navigation systems are prepared, so that they can navigate with just one meter of water. Then, you will see the tugs, which are paddle tugs, like those we see in the movies, which were the old tugs of the Mississippi, ships of the Mississippi ......, but same, it is the same system”
Sara: “Each barge tows, you told me…..”
Juan: “Abuout 10 tons of crude salt…………….once washed, they become in 7”
Vicente: “Paco, five, Do you listn me?”
Paco: “Tell me”
Vicente: “Stop, just a moment, we are going to get off”
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Juan: “Hello, Paco”
Paco: “Good afternoon”
Juan: “This symbol is the machine. The blue areas are already the extracted areas. He is the pilot of the machine and he deals to make some rounds, glued to the extracted area, because really the goal is to collect the entire surface of the pond once a year”.
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Juan: “The machine goes on with floats and moves through these two tracks, then it has a blade height adjustment, which is stuck at the bottom to collect the salt layer. The first thing to do is drain it a bit, then we will see it, after dump barges, drain and wash a little ... Although it seems…... it seems to be rare, the salt must be washed to remove the insoluble and having then stored, to finish draining”.
Sara: “Why the pond water has this color?”
Juan: “The color is given by a bacterium, reproduced, spontaneously, when the brine is saturated in salt; this happens in all saline and it is completely harmless”.
Sara: “How far is sold a ton of salt?”
Juan: “Well ...for Export, below 20 Euros and, for the thaw here, it will not be much more..”
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Sara: “What happens if it rains, it spoils all this salt?”
Juan: “No, no, no ... if you notice, the salt makes a crust on the surface……."
Sara: “Yes, It is so hard….”
Juan: “….the water runs out there and .......we have practically no loss……”
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Sara: “John, this salt…., well, it is road salt, Is it thrown, such as you offer it on roads?”
Juan: “First we grind it and then we add an anti-caking, which in turn has an effect antifreeze”
Sara: “What temperature salt freezes?”
Juan: “Salt, less than -20 degrees, is already freezed. The truth is that in Spain this does not happen often, but salt, that we export to some Nordic countries, if it had no anti-caking, could reach freezing”
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Sara: “John, Are we in the largest salt lake of Europe?”
Juan: “Yes. probably, at this time, the salt lakes of Torrevieja are the largest European sea salt”
Clarification: Torrevieja is a village of Alicante (Esatern Spain)
Sara: “I have read that, in Spain, all the salt industry employs 26,000 people, 26,000 direct jobs. How many people can work in the Salt lakes of Torrevieja?”
Juan: “In the Salt lakes of Torrevieja, we are more than 80 people, who are working directly and, then, there are 30 or 40 people, who are working indirectly”
Sara: “If the winter is cold, John, all this salt around us now .... I do not know how many tons can be here .....”
Juan: “Here, there are ………around 300,000 tons….”
Sara: “300,000….they could be sold…”
Juan: “If Winter were hard, we could sell these 300,000 tons, yes”
Sara: “Is Winter being hard?”
Juan: “By the moment, not much; but… there are still a lot of winter in front and ... well ... the Winter ....”
Sara: “Are you here hopeful that temporary arrive?”
Juan: “Well, the proverb says: April showers, bring May flowers…..Snow is good for everybody”
Well, here has finished the video. I hope that you have liked.
Till soon, kind regards,
Luis.
Sponsored by Costaluz Lawyers.
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