Salt. We sprinkle it on our food. It’s listed as an ingredient in many of our favorite products. We toss it on our sidewalks and driveways to melt ice. We put out blocks of it to feed deer and livestock. City and county road crews put salt on our roads and bridges to enhance driver safety.
Salt is an essential mineral that is used or consumed by people every day. And therefore, it’s an important commodity to America’s economy.
But where exactly does salt come from? What you may not know is that salt is mined. In addition to sourcing salt from the ocean or from the Great Salt Lake, the U.S. has some of the largest salt mines in the world. In fact, two large salt mines are located near Detroit and Cleveland.
Like other minerals, such as copper or iron, large salt deposits are located throughout the United States and Canada.
And where there is a mine, more often than not, you will find Mesabi heat exchangers on haul trucks, bulldozers, drills and other heavy-duty equipment.
Why?
Because L&M Radiator’s engineers have learned how to design and manufacture radiators that are able to withstand the highly corrosive environment of an underground salt mine – like no other radiator manufacturer.
Deep Down Underground
Within the city limits of Detroit is a city within a city. It’s just 1,100 feet below the surface. The Detroit Salt Company drilled its first shaft more than 100 years ago. Today, the 1,500-acre salt mine harvests more than 1.7 million tons of salt each year, which is primarily sold to state and county highway departments to de-ice roads and highways.
This is just one of several underground salt mines where Mesabi radiators are hard at work.
“Salt is extremely corrosive,” said Tim Denehy, L&M Radiator sales manager. “Everything that salt touches – even metal – corrodes.
“So, the salt mine in Detroit is a highly corrosive environment where we have a couple of different options to offset the corrosion – either using durable coatings on mild steel or stainless steel frames and brass tubing,” Denehy added.
Within an underground salt mine operation, Mesabi radiators are typically used on graders on the surface of the mine, and underground, on wheel loaders, drilling rigs, and where used, on small dump trucks.
Surface Salt Mines
Mesabi radiators also are found on heavy-duty equipment used to harvest salt at above-ground salt mines, such as the Morton Salt surface mine (also known as a solar mine) in Grantsville, Utah.
In a surface mine operation, salt is harvested in ponds located in concentrated salt areas. Once the water evaporates leaving a layer of salt crystals, a salt harvester, which looks similar to a combine that harvests corn or wheat, goes through and harvests the salt. The salt is scooped up and dumped into a haul truck and then brought to a central processing area where dozers and loaders are used as well.
Keep in mind, when comparing surface operations to underground salt mining operations, underground mines will vary in their levels of corrosiveness – some are dry and not so corrosive, while others suffer from humidity that results in increased corrosive levels. Here again, Mesabi radiators shine for their ability to withstand the corrosive effects of the salty environment.
In both applications – underground and surface mines – Mesabi radiators should be properly maintained. This means cleaning the radiators tubes regularly with either high pressurized air or water.
“These salty environments often are quite humid, so when the fine salt particles hit the humid air, they form a salty like coating that gloms onto surfaces, including radiator tubes,” said Denehy. “To help equipment last as long as possible, we recommend regular cleaning to reduce this coating effect.”
Like other corrosive environments in which Mesabi radiators are used, if proper maintenance occurs regularly, it’s highly likely that your Mesabi radiator will outlast not just one but quite possibly two or three pieces of heavy-duty equipment.
“Our engineers get into these mines and see for themselves what Mesabi radiators are going to encounter,” said Denehy. “We build our radiators to last a lifetime, and then some.”