Swartkops Sea Salt Pty., Ltd.

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.