Private agricultural and chemical products giant Cargill is looking to offload a selection of U.S. deicing salt businesses, The Deal has learned.

The company is working with advisers on a sale process for a selection of assets within its deicing technologies segment that generate roughly $40 million of Ebitda on about $375 million in revenue, according to people who have viewed marketing materials for the business.

Deutsche Bank, which has recent experience selling deicing salt businesses, has been tapped for the Cargill process.

The assets on the block consist of two backwards-integrated facilities, which mine, process and transport bulk deicing salts to municipalities, government agencies and private commercial businesses across the U.S. for use on roadways during winter storms. Cargill is selling its Cayuga Salt Mine in Lansing, N.Y., as well as its Cleveland salt operations. The bulk of the assets’ profits are generated from the New York mine, one of the sources said.

The sale would effectively represent an exit from the salt mining business for Cargill, given it closed its third mine in Avery Island, La., in 2022.

It couldn’t immediately be learned, however, if Cargill will seek long-term supply contracts with the future owners of the mines or otherwise remain involved in the deicing salt supply chain more broadly.

Minneapolis-based Cargill, which primarily supplies sodium chloride rock salt, has boasted of strides in the deicing salt industry in recent years by marketing a less corrosive and more environmentally friendly pre-wet sodium chloride product that uses a liquid magnesium chloride, along with corrosion inhibitors, coloring agents and leaching inhibitors.

Cargill’s deicing technologies business also supplies anti-icing brines, or liquid salt solutions made up of calcium chloride, sodium chloride and magnesium chloride, as well as brine making equipment.

Nevertheless, Cargill’s sale effort continues the recent theme of large chemicals companies cleaning up their portfolios by exiting decades-old chemistries, which in some instances are viewed as less environmentally friendly. Often, strategics appear hopeful that private equity firms with a sweet tooth for attractive cash flows will be able to pass the investments off to their increasingly ESG-conscious limited partners.

Cargill and Deutsche Bank officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Editor’s note: The original version of this article, including advisers and other details, was published on The Deal’s premium subscription website on July 20. For access, log in to TheDeal.com or use the form below to request a free trial.