AVERY ISLAND, La. – Cargill has announced the permanent end of salt production at its mine in Avery Island, Louisiana.
In a release, spokesperson Daniel Sullivan said, “The company had originally planned to halt hoisting salt from the mine later in 2021 as the lease with the landowner Avery Island Inc., expires at year-end.”
Though production is complete, work will likley continue until 2024 to safely close the facility. The company is working with employees to offer a variety of support services as they are needed.
“For over 24 years, we have been proud to be part of the Avery Island and New Iberia communities,” said Sonya Roberts, president of Cargill’s salt business. “This was a difficult business decision, but ultimately the right one as we considered the future economics of the mine’s operation and our production capacity until the end of the year. We’d like to thank Avery Island Inc. for their partnership over those years and thank our hard-working employees who have made the mine successful.”
The mine on Avery Island has been operating since the mid-1800s and was the first rock salt mine in North America. The mine is owned by Avery Island Inc. and has been managed by Cargill since 1997 when it acquired the lease from Azko-Nobel.
Cargill also operates a salt evaporation facility in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana where the company is expanding capacity and increasing efficiency.
In December, two miners died following a collapse at Cargill’s Avery Island location.
Sullivan told WGNO News, “While the tragic events from December our still on our minds, the driving factor here is the timing. We have not resumed salt production since December as we have spent the last six weeks investigating the cause of the tragic accident at Avery Island.”
Sullivan said the company knows they can operate safely, and have had their team working on site. “However, we have opted not to hoist salt out of an abundance of caution,” Sullivan said. “With six weeks now behind us, considering the time to get to back to full production, low demand for road salt due to a soft winter so far, and the time remaining in our lease, we need to focus our time and energy on safely closing the facility.”
Cargill is still working with investigators to determine the cause of the deadly collapse.