Lake brine is an important source of salt in the arid tracts of north-western India from Kachchh to Delhi. The important areas of production are the salt lakes of the Sambhar in Jaipur district; the Didwana, Phalodi and Pachbhadra in Jodhpur district; and Loonkaransarin Bikaner district. Of these, Sambhar is the largest, spreading over 230.59 sq. km. during the rainy season but reducing to a small pond during the rest of the year. The lake contains about 508 lakh tones of salt up to a depth of 3.7 m with annual production of about 2 lakh tones.
The Didwana Lake has oval shape (6.4 km length and 8 km in width) containing poor quality of salt (sodium chloride 80%). Pachbhadra Lake is also oval-shaped (length 12.8 km, width 4.3 to 11.2 km). Salt is of good quality; the annual production being 1 lakh tones. Loonkaransar is a small lake with an area of about 4.5 sq km with annual production between 8 to 10 thousand tones.