Guerrero Negro - Saltworks Operation

Saltworks Operation

Guerrero Negro was born in 1957 when Daniel Ludwig—who also constructed the hotel Acapulco Princess in the port of Acapulco, Guerrero—built a salt works there to supply the demand of salt in the western United States. The salt mine was established around the Ojo de Liebre coastal lagoon taking advantage of the heavy salinity, without realizing that eventually this company, called Exportadora de Sal, S.A., of C.V. ("Salt Exporters, Inc."), would become the greatest salt mine in the world, with a production of seven million tons of salt per annum, exported to the main centers of consumption in the Pacific basin, especially Japan, Korea, the United States, Canada, Taiwan and New Zealand. In 1973, Daniel Ludwig sold the company to the Mexican government and the corporation Mitsubishi, 51% and 49% respectively. The company is distinguished not only by its growth and its yield, but also by the progress which has reached more than a thousand employees, their community and its ecological surroundings: The salt works, located in a site of extraordinary beauty, within a reserve of the biosphere, has been pivotal in the development of the region, where each winter whales gather, many species of resident and migratory birds stay, visiting birds originating mainly in the United States and Europe.