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Honda Helps With The Harold Holt

During a time of heightened environmental awareness, coexistence between industry and Mother Nature can come under close scrutiny, as good corporate citizenship often takes a back seat to profit.

One Mildura-based company has turned the table on this scenario, establishing a successful small business that also assists the local and wider environments following years of neglect.

Sun Salt removes around 30,000 tones of salt from the Murray Darling basin each year, helping to reduce salinity both locally and further down the Murray River in South Australia.

Operating sites at Hattah and Mourquong in North West Victoria and Wakool in South Central New South Wales, Sun Salt specialises in the production of salt of various grades, from the award-winning pink 'Murray River Gourmet Salt Flakes', to much lower quality salt suitable for a variety of commercial and industrial applications including road stabilisation and plastic production.

Murray River Gourmet Salt Flakes is used at many exclusive restaurants around the country including Jamie Oliver's 'Fifteen Melbourne' eatery, and is also exported to Europe, the US, China, Japan and South Africa.

Bores tap into the underground saline waters or 'brines' 15 to 20 metres below the red soils, and transfer into several crystallisation ponds where the liquid gradually evaporates under the hot Mallee sun leaving the salt behind.

Although the process sounds relatively simple, according to Sun Salt Operations Manager, Leighton Schmidt, the brine pumping process is critical.

"We use nine Honda WT30 and WT20 pumps to transfer the brine," Mr Schmidt said.

"It's important that once we identify the quality and concentration level in the brine, we act quickly to ensure quality control is maintained for the particular salt product we're searching for.

"The pumps are fitted with 20 litre fuel tanks allowing us to pump continuously for up to 24 hours straight – we need reliability and longevity because the pumps are often working all day, and we don't always perform maintenance on them as per the 100 hour service intervals.

"Versatility is also important as the pumps can be easily put onto the back of a ute and moved from pond to pond."

Honda's advanced four-stroke WT30 and WT20 pumps are capable of pumping as much as 1300 and 650 litres of liquid debris per minute respectively, but perhaps the pumps' most attractive quality for this harsh application is marine grade componentry.

"Corrosion in the pumps is minimised through the use of marine grade aluminium allowing us to achieve around five years' service from each one," Mr Schmidt said.

"We normally acquire a new pump per year and decommission the oldest one – a full time technician ensures the pumps are serviced as often as possible so that production is not compromised."

Mr Schmidt said that in the coming year Sun Salt will focus on further developing its Mourquong mining lease while seeking out new markets and developing existing ones.

"A new washing plant will soon be up and running in Mourquong, while we're also breaking into new industrial markets in Melbourne – any plastic that contains chlorine requires salt for production and this is an area we're keen to further explore," he said.

"We'll also continue to heavily promote the Murray River Gourmet Salt range, all with the added bonus of addressing the area's salinity problem.

"We'll definitely continue to use Honda in the future; we have tried cheaper pumps but they just don't last."