The local presenceWith many small lakes, and very flat and clayey soil, the Camargue is extremely well adapted to the extraction of sea salt. The Camargue is also the region of France with the lowest rainfall and the most intense evaporation: the annual exceedance of evaporation over rainfall is 1.25 meters.
In 1855, Henri Merle created the company which would later become Péchiney. Initially, the company manufactured soda ash using the Leblanc process in Salindres (the Gard) for which a supply of sea salt was required.
In 1856, Mr Merle created a company to exploit the salt marsh in Salin de Giraud. To help him establish and run the company, he called on the eminent chemist Balard who clearly left his mark on the launch of this new activity.
Subsequently, the growing requirement for chlorine and caustic soda, obtained via salt electrolysis, led to the increase in the production capacity.
In 1946, production had increased to 200,000 tonnes.
In 1971 the Compagnie des Salins du Midi et des Salines de l’Est (C.S.M.E.) became the owner of the large salt works in Salin de Giraud. The salt works was ceded to C.S.M.E by the company Salicam (Société Salinière de Camargue), a subsidiary of Péchiney.
In the beginning, 30 to 40,000 tonnes were produced at Salin-de-Giraud.
The average annual capacity is now approximately 340,000 tonnes.