Goderich Salt Mine

Goderich Salt Mine. Goderich Marine Heritage Walkway. The industrial buildings that you see on the north side of the pier, are the visible portion of the Goderich salt mine which opened in 1959. This mine is the largest underground salt mine in the world., Although salt was discovered in the area in 1866 and extracted by brine evaporation, it was not until 1959 that technology had developed to the point where ground water could be sealed out of the vertical shafts and prevent flooding of the mine. Each year about 250 lake and ocean freighters enter the harbour, turn around with the help of tug boats and dock at the pier to load mainly salt and grain. About nine million tons of salt are shipped yearly., Most of the mine is not visible. The mine is accessed via three vertical shafts which descend into a roughly horizontal 100ft ft (30 m) thick salt layer located about 1800 feet (600 metres) below the surface and extending many kilometres in all directions. The average depth of the lake itself is only about 195 ft (59 m). The mine is as deep as the CN Tower is tall. There are more streets cut into the salt layer, than there are streets on the surface in Goderich and they extend about 3 km west beneath the lake bed., All equipment including vehicles needed in the mine must be dismantled, taken down the shafts then reassembled. Many pieces of equipment are left in the mine when no longer usable rather than bringing them back to the surface., The beehive-shaped and peaked-roof buildings are surface storage facilities for salt. The flat-roofed building is for administration. The 2011, F3 tornado which approached from the lake, first touched land here at the mine before moving across the town. One mine worker was killed, the only fatality from the storm.