Dimas Sequeira's photos with the keyword: mina_sal-gema

Work achieved by a miner.

Achieved by a professor of Porto's High School of Fine Arts.

The salt of Loulé's mine has 2 destinations, according to previous treatment: one quality is used to defrost roads melting the ice - either in central and northern Portugal, or in Sierra Nevada, Spain (transport costs don't make it competitive for more distant destinations); another quality, rich in minerals, is added to livestock feed.

After long use in Loulé's salt mine, this machine is exhibited to the visitors, to show them what kind of machines were once used.

For many years it was used in Loulé's salt mine to load trucks with salt. This machine is kept in the mine to show the visitors what kind of machines were once used.

It is kept there to show the visitors the kind of equipment and machines that once were used. Bringing it back to the surface just to become scrap would involve high costs.

They grow very fast, as a result of the strong aeration of the galleries.

The salt mine of Loulé exhibits many stalactites. They grow very fast, owing to the strong aeration of the galleries.

There are about 40 km of galleries in the mine, most of them no longer used. The capacity of salt extraction reaches 100,000 tons per day, but demand stays far shorter than that. The number of miners working there is very low: between 5 and 10! Aeration of the galleries is ensured by ventilation systems - there are doors to open and close behind you to prevent strong draughts. The temperature inside the mine is constant: 23ºC.

The access to this mine is at Combatentes da Grande Guerra Avenue, Loulé. This elevator (cage) takes 4 minutes between the top and the the bottom, 230 metres below. It is safe, even during earthquakes. Salt was accumulated between 230 and 150 million years ago, when the sea level was much lower - when the single continent Pangea was beginning to disaggregate.