The Mission Salt Pan, originally known as the Bethelsdorp Salt Pan is located approximately 12 kilometers north-east of Port Elizabeth on the old Uitenhage road between Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage.  It is approximately 28,4 metres above sea level in a depression which is surrounded by the existing residential areas.

Geologists maintained that in prehistoric times the sea pushed up to the Mission salt pan via the Swartkops and Chatty Rivers at high tide, leaving seawater behind at low tide.  This water evaporated which left behind salt crystals on the bottom of the pan. Virtually the whole area mentioned above was a swamp. As far as we could ascertain, the local inhabitants of this area (Khoi-koi) used to gather salt in these pans during the period 1790 under the guidance of British missionaries, Drs. Philip and Van der Kemp.

During rainy times the salt in the clay and swamp dissolved and after the rainwater had evaporated, the salt deposit was reaped, sold and traded by the local inhabitants.   In later years, wells were dug in the higher and drier areas of the pan and brine extracted.  Eventually certain parts of the pans were allocated to track-holders who later became legal owners of certain parts of the pan, which has been handed over from generation to generation as inheritance.

During the late 1950’s Federal Mining ® General Mining ® Gencor and later Swartkops Sea Salt (Pty) Ltd. obtained permission from the track-holders to change over to mass production by pumping seawater from the Swartkops Salt Mine brine dams to prepared clay dams, for mass production of salt to take place to the benefit of the company, owners and the community while maintaining an aesthetically acceptable environment.

Place a piece of the soft metal sodium on water.  There is a huge reaction while the surface sizzles and pops.  After the sodium disappears and has therefore formed a compound, you are left with highly poisonous caustic soda.

Chlorine is a suffocating yellowy green gas.  The small amounts released by chlorine pellets in our swimming pools, is enough to keep the water germ free. But in bigger concentrations, chlorine is a horror.  Only 0.058 % per volume in the atmosphere is enough to kill a human being within minutes.

But bring sodium and chlorine together in the laboratory. This product looks familiar.  Taste it.  Now it is harmless.  When the deadly sodium and chlorine compounded, they formed a mineral which is in daily use in our homes: ordinary salt.  Just as water consists of the gasses Oxygen and Hydrogen, salt consists of a poisonous metal and a poisonous gas.

Since time immemorial this salt (sodium chloride) has been man’s most valuable and sought-after edible mineral.  Not only is it vital for the human diet, but also essential in the production of almost all chemical products on the market.