5,000 visitors at the open day at the Neue Saline or New Salt Works in Bad Reichenhall

The Reichenhall City Festival was a welcome occasion to open the doors of the Neue Saline to the public last Saturday.In any case, the times in the region are fully set on salt.The Berchtesgaden salt mine, from which the New salt works also obtains the brine for the world-famous Bad Reichenhall Alpine salt, celebrates 500 years of uninterrupted salt mining this year, the guild celebrates 400 years and the brine pipeline from Berchtesgaden to Bad Reichenhall celebrates 200 years.More than 5,000 visitors came to the New Saltworks in Bad Reichenhall, completed in 1926, and got an impression of how salt is extracted from the Reichenhall and Berchtesgaden brine, in past and present.After the one-hour tours of the state-of-the-art plant, everyone grabbed a bite of Bavarian delicacies under the huge dining tent. satisfy their hunger
.The Stoahäusl Musi provided the atmosphere.The attractions were the hands-on activities, where visitors could get an idea of what it meant to extract salt in the past by drilling dikes and salt evaporation in large wood-fired pans.

• Continuous operation since 1928 (fire in 1943 destroyed large parts, then reconstruction)
• Evaporation salt production with modern thermal compression plant (energy-saving process)
• Capacity approx. 300,000 t evaporated salt including the production of Bad Reichenhaller AlpenSalz
• Production of 900 t of evaporated salt per day
• Several crystallisation plants
• Modern, fully automatic 500g package filling lines
• Production of evaporated salt products on various packaging units
• Production of pretzel salt, dishwasher salt
• Production of tablets for use in water softening systems
• Production of various herbal salts
• Pan salt production
• Approx.170 employees
• Operations Manager:Dr. Lars Reime

Background
Active salt mining since 1517, making it the oldest active salt mine in Germany

Foundation
1517 by Gregor Rainer, Imperial Prelate and Provost of the Berchtesgaden Monastery

Operating time
Since its foundation without interruption

Brine production per year
approx. 1.000.000 m³

Process
Wet mining

Mountain salinity
An average of 50 %

Employees
Approx. 100 at the Berchtesgaden site

Technical data
Extension of a drilling mud plant: up to 160 m long, 120 m wide, 125 m high
Active wet mining plants:30
Daily mining progress: approx. 1 cm upwards
Usable mining height:100 m
Operating life of a drilling fluid plant: approx. 30 years
Brine production per wet mining plant during the entire operating period: approx. 1.300.000 m³

Size of the deposits
South-West to North-East:4.5 km (2.5 km in mining)
North-west to south-east:1.5 km (1.5 km in mining)
Proven storage depth:500 m below the valley floor
Presumed bearing depth:1,000 m below the valley floor

Owner
Südwestdeutsche Salzwerke AG, Heilbronn
Spokesman of the Board, Ulrich Fluck
Board of Directors, Wolfgang Rüther

Duration of the guided tour through the visitor mine
1.5 to 2 hours including ticket purchase and changing clothes
(Overall partly with lighting elements for underground use)

Visitors per year
Approx. 382.000 (2016)

Size
Salt shop:150 m²
Visitor centre:600 m²
Tunnels in the entire salt mine: approx. 30 km
Route length visitor pit railway:1.400 m
Length of the first slide:34 m
Length of the second slide:40 m

Opening hours
1 May to 31 October: daily 9 AM to 5 PM*
2 November to 31 March: daily 11 AM to 3 PM*
1 April to 30 April: daily 10 AM to 3 PM*
(*last admission)

Closed
Good Friday, Whit Monday, 1 November, 24 and 25 December, 31 December, 1 January

Site Manager
Raimund Bartl

Head of Department Tourism
Peter Botzleiner-Reber