Sodium chloride has been a world-shaping mineral indeed, prized back into antiquity and beyond, and over the centuries contributing to the growth of trade and even civilization itself in various parts of the world. And though much of it has come from the ocean and open-air salt ponds, a good deal of salt has been mined from underground as well. On a recent trip to Colombia I had the pleasure of visiting a very cool salt mine (both figuratively and literally), which in turn brought to mind anot
