Dampier Salt a tourist attraction

It's funny to consider an over-sized mound of chemical has become a Pilbara landmark, but it's true.

Grey nomads stop on their way to 80-mile or Broome to snap an image of the always-present pile of salt, placed like a strategic marker halfway between Port and South Hedland.

In the right light, in a pre-dawn calm or on a breathless and sultry evening, the mound casts a reflection over crystallising ponds filled with salty brine.

The vast and pallid form shimmers against an impossibly large sky.

During the daylight hours it's still striking how serene the place feels.

In a region crawling with men rusted red with iron oxide and corralled in camps, Rio Tinto's Dampier Salt is a breath of fresh air.

Maybe this can be attributed to the fact employees consider the process of "growing" the chemical to be more akin to farming than mining.

They even refer to part of the process which involves scraping the chemical from concentration ponds as "harvesting".

The facility exports more than 3.2 million tonnes of salt a year, mainly to China, Korea and the Philippines for use in the chemical industry.

Most who pass the site on a daily basis would be surprised to learn it takes up 9000ha, encompassing concentration ponds, salt fields and port ship-loading facilities.

More unexpectedly, the entire process from Indian Ocean saltwater intake at high tide to harvesting of the final product takes about 18 months.

Overseeing much of the operation is process superintendent Sally Carlton.

She explains solar salt farming is a process thousands of years old, and Port Hedland's climate lends itself to the ancient practice.

In an industry which relies on evaporation, high temperatures and wind are a salt miner's best friend.

"There are salt mines around the world, mainly situated on the line close to the equator, places like India, Chile and Mexico," Ms Carlton says.

"Because the sun is used to grow the salt, there is less growth in winter.

"The location is a Catch 22 in the wet season because evaporation is really high but we also have higher rainfall and the threat of cyclones."

Ms Carlton describes to the North West Telegraph how the facility recently endured 90ml of rain within a few days.

She says rainfall stopped harvest for a few days and dissolved a significant amount of salt, but annual rainfall was taken into consideration as part of DSL's business plan.

The mother-of-three, who has worked in the mining industry for more than a decade, says she enjoys the challenges associated with the length of the salt-growing cycle.

"Eighteen months is a long process," Ms Carlton says.

"If you don't respond to changes quickly then you get defects that affect the whole process."

She seems excited about her return to life as residential worker to Port Hedland, after a previous stint between 2003 and 2005 at the embattled Boodarie Iron plant and periods of fly-in, fly-out employment.

"Like most working mums, it's about balancing priorities of a demanding job with family life," Ms Carlton says.