When we use salt on food and or in cooking it can bind with the carbon in the food and become organic and the minerals more bio-available.
21277 mentioned ionic forms of minerals... these are electrically charged and react when placed with a substance of an apposing ionic value; a creation of electrical energy much like a battery. But we are still dealing with ionic inorganic forms of the mineral until it becomes bound to a carbon.
The hydrogen atom is the simplest of ions and pH is the potential of hydrogen (acid/alkaline).