Redmond salt mine supplies Utah’s roads and chef’s kitchens

REDMOND, Utah — It’s all right there.

The walls, ceiling, even the ground.

Nothing but salt.

“There aren’t very many salt mines like this,” Zac Clayson said. He is on the industrial team for Redmond Minerals and deals with product orders, emails, and phone calls all the time

However, there is a big smile on his face when he takes people into the salt mine to show them how this central Utah operation works.

The deepest part of the salt mine is about 900 feet underground.

“You can see the different rocks, pretty much these veins that come out,” he said while pointing at a large salt wall with his flashlight.

Redmond Minerals, which is just outside the town of Redmond in Sevier County, has done very well grinding those rocks into all kinds of salt. The company is well known for its agricultural salt, salt licks for animals, and especially its all-natural food salt.

“Chefs all over the world use our salt,” Clayson said.

Most of Redmond’s efforts, though, are to provide salt for icy roads in the winter.

“We ship road salt all over the western United States by truck and by train,” Clayson said.

Redmond’s salt is well liked by winter weather states because of its natural calcium and magnesium content.

Clayson said Redmond’s salt melts ice when temperatures get down to about zero degrees, where most other sodium chloride salts stop melting ice when temperatures get to about 20 degrees.

“Our product is a high performing salt,” he said.

One of Redmond’s biggest customers is the state of Utah where it has been quite the winter season so far. The Utah Department of Transportation uses several vendors for its state supply of salt.

Last year, UDOT purchased 28% of its state supply from Redmond Minerals. Clayson said helping keep the roads clear is something his team takes pride in.

“In Utah, they’re called the Utah snow fighters,” he said. “Whether it’s the miners or the drivers, their goal is to make sure the roads are safe. We all have family on these roads. We don’t want accidents on the road. We don’t want a school bus sliding off the road.”

Mining salt at Redmond Minerals is a year-round operation. Salt is stored in large piles just outside the opening of the mine for when it is needed on the roads. As Utah keeps getting snowstorms, those calls for more salt keep coming in.

“I had a call this morning from a shed because of the storm last night,” said Clayson. “They worked through the night and were almost out of salt.”

Lots of trucks were lined up Wednesday morning for road salt deliveries.

“Today, we will probably ship out close to 6000 tons of salt,” Clayson said.

He also knows more snowstorms are on the way.

So does his team.

“As a Utah snow fighter, these guys know they are on call to make sure everybody can get to where they need to go,” he said. “Our goal is to do our part to help keep the roads clear.”