Monte Kali / Kalimanjaro (Heringen)

Monte Kali and Kalimanjaro are local colloquial names for the spoil heap or spoil tip that towers over the town of Heringen, Hesse, Germany. It is one of a number of sites where the K+S chemical company dumps the unusable sodium chloride (common table salt) which is a byproduct of potash mining and processing, a major industry in the area.

The names are puns of Kali (shorthand for Kalisalz, "potash" in German) respectively with "Monte Carlo" and "Kilimanjaro." The heap lies directly next to the border with the state of Thuringia, and hence next to the former inner German border with what was once East Germany.[2]

The heap rises over 200 metres (660 ft) above the surrounding land, its summit reaching 530 metres (1,740 ft) above sea level.[1] According to the Werra Potash Mining Museum in Heringen, Monte Kali has been in operation since 1976; as of January 2014, it covered 93 hectares (230 acres) and contained approximately 188 million tonnes of salt, with another 900 tonnes being added every hour and 6.4 million tonnes a year.