Pakistan’s first salt manufacturing company, Hub Pak Salt Refinery is preparing to construct the world’s biggest salt refinery in Hub Industrial Zone, Balochistan.
Rather than selling the raw material at cheap rates to the world, Pakistan now plans to boost exports of pink salt with the creation of the largest salt refinery in the world.
At present, the world’s largest salt refinery is situated in Mexico and the boundary of the salt refinery is 86,500 acres and produces around 10 million tons of salt per year.
As per the Hub Pak Salt Refinery plans, the refinery will span over 150,000 acres and will become operational in 2023.
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Ismail Sattar, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HubSalt Pakistan has revealed that the refinery will be completed at a cost of more than $350 million and around 2,000 locals will be hired after completion.
After the completion of the Hub Pak Salt Refinery, it will turn Pakistan into the second largest salt exporter and third major salt processor in the world.
HubSalt claims that it will take Pakistan’s salt export from 4 million tons to 30 million tons and also it will generate a revenue of $1 billion per year.
Pakistan has the second largest salt reserves; however, Pakistan produces 4 million tons of the world total salt, which positions at 300 million tons and exports just 400,000 tons per year.
Pakistan has two main sources of fetching salt, one is Khewra Salt Mine and the next is Saline lakes.
Khewra Salt Mine is located in Jhelum, Punjab and currently is the world’s second largest salt mine and the main source of getting Himalayan pink salt (Pink Salt). On the other hand, Saline lakes salt mine is located in Sindh.
Europe, United States, Australia, South Korea, Japan, India, African countries and United Arab Emirates (UAE) are the main buyers of Pakistani salt.
