Economy Ministry unveils future scenarios for mining

The Economy Ministry has decided the mining sector has become too heavy a bu rden for the budget to postpone the decision on its restructuring and has pr oposed two alternative programs to help resuscitate the unprofitable mines. According to Rzeczpospolita, citing unnamed insiders at the Ministry, the de partment will present on Monday a new program to steer the mines to less tur bulent waters. Should the more radical option prevail, all five coal companies will go bust and will later be sold by a receiver. Under the 'mod-erate' option, 15-19 mines out of a total of 24 would be consolidated forming one body and the rest would be handed over to the Mine Restructuring Company (SRK) and sh ut down. It is not known how many people will lose their jobs once the restr ucturing is under way, but the estimated number of redundancies under the mo derate scenario is as high as 36,000 before the end of 2006.The figure may b e much higher though, since the Ministry seems to favor the 'hardline' optio n. The Ministry has already confirmed that a special program would be launch ed to create workplaces for the laid-off miners. (Rzeczpospolita, 16-16 Oct. , p. B1) J.K.