PGG president: Polish Coal will trim unnecessary production

The CEO of Polish Mining Group, Tomasz Rogola, said that streamlining operations and committing to coal production in the most profitable mines will make the coal industry in Poland more efficient and “consistent.” He was speaking at a conference on the coal sector in Katowice on Friday, according to the Polish press. According to the Central Statistical Office, coal production fell in October by 7.7 percent, y/y. However, Rogola remained optimistic, in the face of a report by the Ministry of Energy that stated PGG had lost PLN 370 million in revenues this year. “We expect that the results will be very good, very close to the business (norm), maybe even the same as in the business - it is our goal that we want to achieve,” Rogola said. He outlined that two new longwall mining operations would begin next year, in Bielowszowice and Pokój mines, adding that the establishment of these sites would save as much as PLN 63 million per year. PGG also said that it would achieve savings by removing infrastructure that wasn’t necessary, such as processing plants or railway sidings, by administrative changes, and by charging customers more money for coal. Longwall mining is a process of shaft mining in which a long shaft (or “wall”) of coal is mined in a single stream. According to mining experts, it captures a 20 percent higher amount of coal than older methods, such as pillar mining.