Poland - a European coal potentate

31 mines, 41, 9 of million tons produced in the first half of the year, more than 116 thousand employees

Poland is the largest hard coal producer in the European Union, producing annually almost 88 mln tons of this raw mineral. Last year deliveries to the countries of the UE and outside the Union reached 12 mln tons of Polish coal. Mostly steam coal is sold abroad constituting about 86 per cent of all deliveries to the markets of the Union. The production of Polish coal constitutes more than half of the production of the European Union and in the case of steam coal it is 59 per cent and in the case of coking coal about 39 per cent. Coal is a predominant fuel in Poland for generation of electric energy; 95 per cent of energy generated in our country comes from coal (in which about 55 per cent of the energy is generated from hard coal and about 40 per cent from brown coal)

Resources and reserves

Hard coal occurs in three regions of Poland. They are: Upper Silesian, Lublin and Lower Silesian Coal Basins. In the last basin mentioned the exploitation of coal was terminated several years ago.. It in the proven deposits of Lublin Coalfield, stretching on surface area of 4, 63 Thos. square km, both steam coals and coking ones occur. Lublin Coal \"Bogdanka” is the only mine operating there. The largest center of coal mining in our country is the Upper Silesian Coalfield covering the area of 4, 45 Thos. square km. Coal mining is carried out in this region for more than 300 years. O The largest part of the reserves here consist of steam coal (types 31-32), and considerably less reserves are of coking coals (types 34–36). At present 15, 7 bln tons of balance coal reserves are in the active hard coal mines. Out of that magnitude a bit more than 6 bln tons are the operative reserves, thus the reserves which are suitable for mining from the economic point of view and 3,8 bln tons are industrial reserves (those are operative reserves less losses that have occurred during mining operations). The mean durability of operative reserves in the scale of the whole sector is about 40 years. Till 2015 coal mining will be terminated at eighteen mining horizons and in the same time the coal companies plan to start mining operations at nine horizons which are under development.

Legal framework

The activity of Polish hard coal mining is regulated by the act of 7 September 2007 on functioning of hard coal mining industry in the years 2008-2015. The act defines the principles of financial restructuring of mining enterprises, principles of mines liquidation and the payment of due benefits to ex-employees of the sector. The forecasts and development trends of hard coal mining industry, which should make up the basis for planning of activities by coal companies - hard coal producers - are in the \"Strategy of functioning of hard coal mining industry in 2008-2015\" accepted by the government on 31 July 2007.

The structure

At present 31 mines function in the hard coal mining industry. Most of them are grouped within three coal mining companies. Kompania Węglowa SA, within the structure of four production centers groups 16 mines („Bielszowice”, „Bobrek–Centrum”, „Bolesław Śmiały”, „Brzeszcze-Silesia”, „Chwałowice”, „Halemba-Wirek”, „Jankowice”, „Knurów”, „Marcel”, „Piekary”, „Piast”, „Pokój”, „Rydułtowy-Anna”, „Sośnica-Makoszowy”, „Szczygłowice” and „Ziemowit”). Katowice Capital Group consists of Katowice Coal Holding SA with five mines („Murcki”, „Myslowice-Wesola”, „Staszic”, „Wieczorek” and „Week”) and one mine, a Ltd company” „Kazimierz-Juliusz”. Jastrzębie Coal Company groups five mines („Borynia”, „Budryk”, „Jas-Mos”, „Krupiński”, „Pniówek” and „Zofiówka”). Southern Coal Concern SA acts on the basis of one mine “Sobieski-Janina” with two mining areas.
The only individual mine is Lublin Coal “ Bogdanka” mine and - „Siltech” Ltd co. Is the

Only private mine. Within the structure of hard coal mining industry two restructuring companies are also operating: Spółka Restrukturyzacji Kopalń SA / Mines Restructuring Company/ and Bytomska Spółka Restrukturyzacji Kopalń sp. z o.o Bytom Mines Restructuring Company, Ltd co. All stocks of Bytom Mines Restructuring Company are owned by the Mines Restructuring Company SA.
These companies conduct a physical liquidation of the mines after termination of production by those mines and also deal with management of the non-production assets.

Results of the sector

Polish mining, employing 116, 6 Thos. people, produced in the 1st half of this year 41, 9 million tons of hard coal. This is by 7 per cent less than last year. Out of this volume 35, 5 million tons constitute steam coal and 6, 4 million tons coking coal. The sales of coal reached 42, 1 million tons, in which 37, 7 million tons of coal was delivered to home market. Professional power generators are the largest customers who bought 21, 46 million tons what is comparable to last year. More than 56, 1 per cent less coal (4, 3 million tons) was sold for deliveries to the countries of the European Union and for exports outside the EU. Despite the reduced production the climate for coal prices is so good that the net financial result of the sector, amounting to 354, 4 million PLN, is not only better by more than 200 million PLN than last year one but it also exceeds the planned profits which, according to forecasts, were supposed to amount to 23, 66 mln PLN after the 1st half of the year..