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The global networkSalt was extracted from the underground galleries in Dax during the Middle Ages. However, this deposit was not rediscovered until the end of 1862 by a gas engineer, Claude Lorrin. Searching for thermal waters, Mr Lorrin had dug a 78-meter well in his garden in the centre of Dax.
Claude Lorrain then decided to develop this deposit in partnership with an English engineer, Mr Lyte, and they created together the company Société des Salines de Dax on the site of the current salt works. After several years, working the Lorrin shafts became very difficult and it was decided to develop the St Pandelon deposit, conceded by decree in 1881.
Until 1907, solid blocks of rock salt were extracted via underground galleries. This ore was then transported to Dax by oxcart and dissolved in basins called ‘bessoirs’. The brine subsequently manufactured was then evaporated in rectangular pans, heated by the steam from wood or lignite coal fires. The salt deposited on the bottom of the pans was extracted manually with rakes called rabbles.
| In 1907, when the mine at St Pandelon was flooded by an inflow of water, the operation was continued by pumping the brine in the old shafts and transferring it to the salt works via a 5 km pipe.
In 1962, the activity then had to be continued outside this area due to the collapse of the old mine galleries which subsequently formed a lake. In 1967, Compagnie Salinière de l’Est merged with the Dax salt works, which had been operated since its creation by the company Société Salinière de Mouguerre et d’Urt. The company name then became Société Salinière de l’Est et du Sud-Ouest (CSESO). In 1969, this company merged with the Compagnie des Salins du Midi et des Salines de l’Est. |