Coal mines still in tragic situation despite closures and major cut-backs

The coal mining industry made a zl. 1.2 billion loss last year, which is twelve times higher than estimated in the reform program. Industry debts now stand at zl. 21 billion. About zl. 1 billion has been spent on liquidating coal mines, while coal sales dropped by half a million tones as compared to last year, said Deputy Economy Minister Marek Kossowski. In the last Mining Forum it was argued that the government failed to give due attention to the crisis in mining and did not have a program to restructure the industry. Despite dismissing about 100,000 miners, closing 22 mines and reducing output by about 30 million tones, there is still too much coal on the market. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B3) K.S.