Point Paterson, located on the Spencer Gulf coastline 15 km south-east from Port Augusta, was the site of limited commercial sea salt production from 1951 to 1963. A site inspection, recently carried out to appraise the abandoned facilities of this previous operation, has indicated that major site redesign and new plant construction would be required there in order to now produce an acceptable product. Environmental restrictions, a limited salt production capacity, and the capital cost of redevelopment, are all considered to render this type of project so situated currently unattractive.