Abstract: A carnallite-containing crude salt is separated into a carnallite fraction, a sylvite fraction and an abandonable residue by grinding the salt to an average particle size of about 1.5 mm., conditioning the particles in a conventional manner with from 5-300 g/t of a conventional conditioning agent adjusting the relative humidity of the conditioned particles to 5-25%, and subjecting the resulting particles to electrostatic separation in two stages, wherein in the first stage the particles are subjected to a high voltage electric field having a field length of 0.4 to 1.2 m to separate a carnallite fraction by imparting to the carnallite fraction a high sidewards velocity relative to the initial downward velocity upon entering the field, thereby causing deflection of the carnallite away from a middlings fraction, and wherein in the second stage the first stage middling fracton is subjected to a second high voltage electric field having a field length of 1.5 to 2.