2011
LW „BOGDANKA” S.A.
9
Lublin. These actions allowed to apply for a concession for
exploitation of seams 382, 358/2, 389 and 391 to Minister
of Environmental Protection in the new, broadened mining
area “Puchaczow V”.
It should be mentioned that in two new, lower-laying
seams expected for exploitation (389 and 391) the coal is
of better quality than in seams exploited at the moment.
Apart from steam coal, coking coal is also present. Coking
coal (so-called type 34 coal) reserves in two aforemen-
tioned seams in the area expected for acquisition are ca.
57 million tonnes.
COAL PRODUCTION AND MARKET SHARE
Coal is the main energy resource in Poland. About 96% of
electricity is produced from coal and this number divides
into ca. 63% of energy produced from hard coal and ca.
33% produced from lignite. The role of coal as a primal
energy carrier in state energy safety is increasing because
of the vast coal reserves in Poland, especially in a situation
when prices of other energy carries, particularly of oil and
gas, keep rising.
According to the estimates made by International En-
ergy Agency which have been confirmed with the predic-
tions of Ministry of Economy, the share of coal in energy
resources consumption structure will remain unchanged
until at least 2020. This creates an opportunity for Polish
hard coal mining industry, especially when the final energy
consumption (namely energy consumed by households
and enterprises) is to rise by ca. 44% until the year 2030 in
comparison to 2005.
Lubelski Węgiel „Bogdanka” S.A. is one of hard coal
market leaders, distinguishable among other producers
by achieved financial results, efficiency of coal exploitation
and investment plans that assume making new deposits
accessible.
Steam coal sold the company is used mainly for the
production of electricity, heat and cement. Industrial
consumers are the most important clients of the com-
pany (88% of sales), particularly power plants located
in Eastern and Southern Poland (Kozienice Power Plant,
Połaniec Power Plant, Puławy Nitrogen Plant, Ostrołęka
Power Plant).
The Group predicts that the realization of investment
plans of the company (accessing new coal deposits and
starting exploitation in Stefanow field) will allow to increase
market share of LW Bogdanka in hard coal market in Po-
land to 12% in the year 2014.
DEVELOPMENT OF STEFANOW FIELD
To ensure long-term development perspective of Lubelski
Węgiel „Bogdanka” S.A., increase its market share as well
as its position in the industry, in the region and particularly
in order to create the possibility for unit cost reduction of
coal exploitation and therefore for increasing its competi-
tiveness, in 2004 a complex development plan for the mine
has been prepared.
In the first half of 2006 the programme was verified and
called “Development Strategy for Lubelski Węgiel „Bog-
danka” S.A. for the years 2006-2014 on the basis of Ste-
fanow Field development”. The document was accepted
by the Board of Supervisors. The Strategy assumes that
present production capability will be doubled in 2014.
In order to create a possibility for such intensive devel-
opment of the company two actions will be necessary:
making lower-laying seams 389 and 391 accessible
•
and their exploitation
extending mine’s mining area towards South and
•
acquiring part of K-3 area
Significant part of reserves located in those seams is depos-
ited in the Southern part of the mine and in K-3 area. There-
fore in the future it will be reasonable to move the exploitation
from Bogdanka to Stefanow. Expanding mining area towards
South through acquisition of a part (ca. 20 km2) of K-3 area
will allow exploitation of interesting seams (385/2, 389 and
391) with reserves about 100 million tonnes.
The turn of September and October 2011 will become a
historical date for the builders of Stefanow field and whole
LW Bogdanka SA company as on 30th September 2011
Mining Council for Energomechanical Devices Control in
Katowice granted its permission for exploitation of skip
hoist shaft in Stefanow and therefore this decision finished
the construction period.
Simultaneously, plough longwall 7/VII in seam 385/2
(G-1 section) has been launched. The longwall will use the
newly-opened shaft for hoisting the winning.
The beginning of October 2011 has therefore become
the starting period for hoisting coal using shaft 2.1 in Ste-
fanow field.
During its mining operations so far, “Bogdanka” mine has
achieved high concentration of production, high efficiency
and positive economic results when exploiting seams of
thickness exceeding 1,6 m with the use of shearer tech-
nology. This technique allows to achieve daily production
reaching 20000 tonnes in longwall with 2,0-2,5 m height and
up to 15000 tonnes/day in 1,6-1,8-meter-high longwalls.
In a long perspective present state will not be sufficient
for maintaining of such high mine production as many mil-
lions of tonnes of reserves, favourably located near the
shafts could not be mined only because the thickness of
the seams is slightly lower than allowed by shearer tech-
nique (1,6 meter). This applies to both the presently mined
seam 385/2 and perspective seams 389 and 391.
Exploitation of seam 385/2 in Stefanow field is conduct-
ed with the use of plough complex bought by the company
in 2010 from Bucyrus. This device reached a world record
of productivity when daily output reached 16,8 thousand
tonnes. After modernization the complex has been in-
stalled in Stefanow. The longwall prepared for mining is
305-meter-long and its panel length is 5070 meters. After
the start-up phase and optimizing parameters of particular
devices, the company achieved target production of 10
thousand tonnes/day.
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