SALT IN CANADA

Canada has three known major salt formations, all of great area and thickness, in economically strategic locations. The largest deposits are in Western Canada, followed by Ontario and the Atlantic Provinces. In Western Canada, the salt beds extend from the Northwest Territories down through Alberta, Saskatchewan, and into Manitoba. This immense deposit averaging 122 m (400 feet) in thickness and covering an area of approximately 390,000 KM2 (150,000 square miles), contains more than a million billion tons of salt.

In Ontario, salt is found along the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Erie. This deposit is known as the Michigan Basin and is a saucer shaped formation underlying part of Michigan, part of Ohio, and Lakes Huron and Erie.

In the Atlantic Provinces large, thick deposits have been found underlying New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, part of Newfoundland and even the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. These deposits occurred in various geologic eras and all of them are the remains of ancient inland seas. The shorelines of these ancient seas, which outline the edges of the salt beds mark the occurrences of the oil, gas and coal deposits which have been found in such abundance in Canada.