History

Our produce was born 250 mln. years ago. There was an ancient ocean in place of modern Donbass, with the advance of mainland salt was deposited

White gold of the Earth - since the time immemorial food salt invariably accompanies man, as life is impossible without salt. For a long time this precious natural mineral, the possession of which brought wealth and power, was a contentious issue causing disagreement, discord, state conflicts and even wars. During some historic periods salt was evaluated on a par with gold. It is not incidentally that salt production became one of the first crafts of the Ancient Rus.

Southeastern part of Donbass occupies a unique place among saliferous regions. It is at this place that 250 million years ago huge deposits of the purest rock salt were formed from rippling waters of a shallow bay of the ancient Permian Sea .

Historians testify to the fact that people could get this vital mineral by means of evaporating it from the brine of Tor and Bakhmut lakes, located at the place of Artyomovsk rock salt deposit that was prospected later. But it is only in the XVI century that production of pan salt in the basin of the Severskiy Donets river became regular. History of the whole Donbass is inseparably connected with development of salt production. Production of pan salt required more and more wood, which resulted in deforestation of neighboring areas. A new energy source was in need and it became coal, discovered on the territory of Donbass about 300 years ago. It was mainly used for boosting salt production and later on for metallurgy development and other industrial needs.

Salt has always been profitable goods, much in demand and bringing in considerable return to proprietors. Backbreaking labour of Cossacks working at the salterns over the centuries was, however, depreciated and that incited perfectly justified riots. Mass historical uprising of the Bakhmut salt-workers in 1706-1708 was most threatening. It was cruelly put down by the government of Peter I and salt-works were ravaged.

In view of growing demand the production of pan salt in Bakhmut was afterwards renewed, largely due to the works of the great Russian scientist M. Lomonosov who regarded salt as a good source of replenishing the state treasury. Several prospectors suggested that there were rich deposits of rock salt in the area of the settlements of Tor and Bakhmut as early as in the middle of XVIII century. But only in 1880 did a prominent Russian geologist and scholar A. Karpinskiy make positive and grounded research of the issue and prove the occurrence of huge salt reserves in our steppes, through which for centuries ran the well-known Chumatskiy Shlyakh (salt-carriers way) to Crimean salt.

Driving of the so-called “Government Drill-hole” carried out by mining engineer P. Ivanov near the village of Bryantsevka at a distance of 10 versts (about 20 km) from Bakmut in 1876-1880 revealed 9 salt-beds including the thickest – Bryantsevskiy, the height of which came to approximately 40 meters.

This sensational discovery drew the attention of industrialists. They launched an intensive salt-mines construction. In 1881 the first mine belonging to the private industrial company of General N. Letunovskiy was put into operation. In 1884-1885 five more salt mines were commissioned contributing to further considerable growth of salt production and saturation of the salt market…

During the Great Patriotic War the mines have been totally destroyed. The reconstruction of the last of the above has been completed in 1947. A briquetting department has been commissioned in 1959. The production of iodized salt was begun to ensure its adequate supply to iodine deficient areas. In the beginning of 1970-s highly productive mining machinery was purchased for the mines leading to dislodging of salt through deep boreholes with filing of walls, loading of salt by means of powerful excavators and conveyor transportation to the shaft. The volumes of extracted salt grew and in 1985 amounted to 6.8 mln. tons and in 1991 – 7.2 mln. tons.

Hard-working, highly professional body of workers of the State Enterprise Association Artyomsol successfully withstands all the adversities and difficulties of the post-reconstruction period, it confidently masters peculiarities of market economy. The collective steadily pursues the perspective of quality-oriented development, uninterruptedly supplying numerous consumers with its truly precious product, named the salt of Earth.