Salt is an important mineral needed by a living cell for growth and by a nation for agro-industrial stability. It is very common as it constitutes a part of everything taken and used directly or indirectly by human beings in everyday life. For chemists, it is Sodium Chloride, but to most layman, it is an ordinary white crystal added to a meal, which, if lacking, would spoil a delicious recipe. Furthermore, it is a food preservative used in pickling or salting. The salt used for food preservation constitutes a small percentage of the salt produced in the country. The greater bulk goes to the industry, as in the manufacture of heavy chemicals such as sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide, chlorine, hydrochloric acid, sodium sulfate and others. Salt is also used in making soap, bleaching powder, dyes, pottery, glycerine and fertilizer, (de los Santos, 1976). Lately, its medicinal use to awaken dull skin and revival of human spirit has been reported by some skin specialists (de los Santos, 1976).
The importance, therefore, of salt can never be over-emphasized. It is regrettable, however, that in spite of the great demand for its varied uses, the technology of improving and maximizing salt production in the country has been very slow, bordering on criminal neglect. The technical or scientific neglect is doubly regrettable if we consider that the raw material? for salt-making are found in almost every province and coastal barrio.