# Road salt: curious as to why we buy from Africa when there is a mine in Irl?



## Protocol (21 Dec 2010)

I am curious as to why we buy road salt from Africa when there is a mine in Carrickfergus?

[broken link removed]

They produce 500,000 t of de-icing rock salt per year.

There is a railway line nearby, so freight trains could haul it to Dublin in 2-3 hrs.


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## Protocol (21 Dec 2010)

*Delivery of salt due Thursday*

A shipment of salt from Turkey is due to arrive into Cork Harbour at the city's South Jetties in two days.

The MV CFL Prospect is due to tie up at 7.30am with a cargo of 6,300 tonnes of salt for the National Roads Authority.

Unloading will begin shortly after 8am onto 100 trucks expected quayside to help deliver the salt around the country.

Three further shipments of salt are expected over the Christmas period bringing it to 15,000 tonnes of salt through Cork.


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## Purple (21 Dec 2010)

Protocol said:


> I am curious as to why we buy road salt from Africa when there is a mine in Carrickfergus?



Maybe it's orange salt.


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## RonanC (21 Dec 2010)

Much of the salt we use on our roads comes from the mines up in Carrickfergus, however, the UK takes the majority of this salt and we get option to anything thats left, this means we must look to other parts of the world for rock salt and even marine salt at times.


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## ajapale (21 Dec 2010)

Purple said:


> Maybe it's orange salt.



Its actually has a purple/brown hue!

The Boston NRA guy was on Newstalk and he stated that be also buy from NI. The NI mine however is a commercial outfit and look after their long term very large UK customers in Scotland and England as a matter of priority.

aj


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## Lex Foutish (21 Dec 2010)

ajapale said:


> Its actually has a purple/brown hue!
> 
> The Boston NRA guy was on Newstalk and he stated that be also buy from NI. The NI mine however is a commercial outfit and look after their long term very large UK customers in Scotland and England as a matter of priority.
> 
> aj



Yes, AJ. A guy on with Matt Cooper said that most of their salt is contracted to other countries.


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## Complainer (22 Dec 2010)

Presumably it's all down to price.


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## ajapale (22 Dec 2010)

Complainer said:


> Presumably it's all down to price.


 
Price, Availiability, lead times, quality, grade, quantity ordered, previous experience with that supplier etc. (maybe even carbon footprint, environmental impact etc)

And from the IT, clearly the Kerry Co Manager is not happy with the Stalanist "Command and Control" economics of the NRA!



			
				irish times said:
			
		

> *KERRY*
> Kerry County Council wants to regain control of salt supplies from the National Roads Authority, and organise its own supplies in 2011, according to the Kerry county manager.
> The NRA took over control of the supplies this year.
> Manager Tom Curran said at a council meeting that during this cold spell the local authority had little or no control over where and when it could obtain supplies.
> ...


 
And from the Belfast Telegraph. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/n...salt-resources-almost-exhausted-14703009.html



			
				BelfastTelegraph said:
			
		

> Northern Ireland road salt resources will only stretch to two more winters, according to the salt mine that supplies the Roads Service.
> Salt reserves in the Carrickfergus mine are almost exhausted and will be gone by 2012 unless it gets the go-ahead to start extending tunnels towards Ballycarry, mine owners Irish Salt Mining and Exploration Co Ltd said. ​
> Ireland’s only salt mine centres on Kilroot in Carrickfergus and exploits the eastern edge of what was once a land-locked stretch of sea that eventually evaporated. It produces 500,000 tons of road salt every year which is transported throughout Ireland, across to England and even to New York. ​


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## Complainer (22 Dec 2010)

I heard the NRA saying that their role was only to provide salt for national primary routes, and local authorities were free to do their own thing for salt for elsewhere.


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## Howitzer (22 Dec 2010)

Complainer said:


> I heard the NRA saying that their role was only to provide salt for national primary routes, and local authorities were free to do their own thing for salt for elsewhere.


I thought it was their responsibility to source all the salt but only to maintain the primary routes. The LAs had to maintain the other routes with whatever they allocated to them.

Which to me seemed a sensible approach.


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## Complainer (22 Dec 2010)

From [broken link removed]


> As part of the response to last January’s big freeze the NRA, in conjunction with local authorities has put in place a framework contract for the procurement of salt.  Additionally, some local authorities have procured salt directly for example for non-national roads.


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## Brendan Burgess (23 Dec 2010)

ajapale said:


> Price, Availiability, lead times, quality, grade, quantity ordered, previous experience with that supplier etc. (maybe even carbon footprint, environmental impact etc)
> 
> And from the IT, clearly the Kerry Co Manager is not happy with the Stalanist "Command and Control" economics of the NRA!
> 
> ...



Hi AJ

To be fair to the NRA, most councils seem to have made a mess of it last year. A coordinated approach seems to make more sense. This will improve things for the vast majority of councils, but will probably be less efficient for the more efficient councils.


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## Mpsox (23 Dec 2010)

According to yesterdays Indo, only 3 councils, Cavan, Donegal and Carlow, had bought extra supplies of salt. Full marks to them.


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## Yorrick (23 Dec 2010)

"I am curious as to why we buy road salt from Africa when there is a mine in Carrickfergus?"

Probably like Leitrim County Council in 1960s

" I cant see why we dont burn our own timber instead of importing foreign coal from Arigna "


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