Sowa Salt Mine

Sowa Salt Mine is the salt and soda ash works on the Sua Pan at Sowa, in north-eastern Botswana, operated by Botswana Ash (Pty) Ltd, known as Botash. According to Botash, the operation began in April 1991. The company gives a nameplate capacity of 300,000 tonnes of soda ash and about 650,000 tonnes of salt a year, with salt output currently at about 420,000 tonnes a year. Its published product range covers: - dense and light soda ash (sodium carbonate), about 60 per cent of which is sold to the glass industry - food-grade coarse salt, iodated and uniodated - chemical-grade coarse salt - food-grade fine salt, iodated and uniodated Botash is owned in equal shares by the Government of Botswana and Chlor Alkali Holdings (Pty) Ltd. The Sua Pan, also written Sowa Pan, is one of the pans of the Makgadikgadi, among the largest salt flats in the world. Its brines contain sodium chloride as the main constituent, along with sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium sulphate and small amounts of potassium chloride. The pan fills seasonally with summer rain and with water from the Nata River, which can remain until April or May, and the Nata Bird Sanctuary, a community conservation area established in 1993, lies at its northern end. Sowa Town was established as a township in 1991. It lies within Central District but is administered separately, and it had 2,914 residents at the 2022 census. Its name means salt in the language of the San. Enquiries go to Botash, whose website, botash.bw, gives the telephone numbers +267 621 3210 and +267 74 001 593 and the email address marketing@botash.bw.

F3XC+XCP, Sowa, Botswana
Sowa

20°30′0″S 26°4′16″E