Kompania Węglowa speeds up Bytom II pit closure

The management board of coal mining concern Kompania Węglowa (KW), which groups together 22 coal mines, decided to accelerate the liquidation of the Bytom II coal mine by three months which means that the mine will cease to operate on July 31. "Part of its 1,320 workforce will be employed in other pits and some will be offered redundancy packages," said KW's Zbigniew Madej. KW's management board plan to merge other mines, among them, Centrum and Silesia with KWK Brzeszcze at the beginning of 2005. Moreover, in October 2005, the Polska-Wirek coal mine is to be shut down, and in January 2007 the Pokój and Halemba coal mines will be merged. KW currently employs 82,000 miners, but plans to decrease the figure by 18,000 by the end of 2006. (Puls Biznesu, p. 9) E.B.