Bezpieczeństwo Pracy i Ochrona Środowiska w Górnictwie Number 01/2023

The extractive industry is a significant source of waste in Poland. Legal provisions of dealing with waste from the exploration, extraction and processing of minerals, due to their specificity, are regulated separately in the Mining Waste Act. Only in unregulated matters the provisions of the Waste Act are to apply. It should be noted, however, that the legislation regarding waste do not apply to:
- extractive residues, if the concession for the extraction of minerals or the mining plant operation plan, or the local spatial development plan for the mining area specify the conditions and manner of their development,
- overburden, dumped in a mining area, if the term and method of its management have been determined in accordance with the provisions of the Geological and Mining Law regarding the operation of a mining plant, unless it constitutes waste within the meaning of the provisions of the Waste Act.
In accordance with the waste hierarchy referred to in this article, waste generation should be prevented as a priority. A significant part of extractive residues is managed in accordance with the above mentioned requirements, including, inter alia, placing it back into excavation voids for reclamation purposes. Data presented in the article indicate that the amount of extracted residues in 2021 in the mining plants covered by the statistics counted 346.3 million tonnes, of which only 67.6 million tonnes (19.5%) were mining waste, while as much as 278.7 million tonnes (80.5%) are not subject to waste regulations.

In mining plants, there are technical and natural hazards. One of them is the hazard created by the presence of karst voids. Karst forms are quite common in carbonate mineral deposits. The Borków-Chwałowice deposit is an excellent example of they occurrence. Part of them is infilled by the so-called internal overburden, which makes problems during exploitation. Karst voids not infilled with the overburden can cause many hazards, for example for operating heavy machinery and during blasting works. Rigips Stawiany mining plant operated at this deposit prevents the hazard by identification of places in danger of occurrence of karstic voids by using electrical resistivity tomography. Based on the results of the geophisical test, potential locations of discontinuities are marked on maps and checked in the quarry. Knowledge of the location and size of the hazard allows for safe planning and operation of the work.

In response to the post-war mechanisation and electrification of the mining industry, the Mining Office for the Inspection of Energy-Mechanical Equipment in Katowice was established in 1957, with local jurisdiction over the entire country, which was renamed the Specialised Mining Authority in 2012. Its material jurisdiction, as mining supervisory authorities and architectural and construction administration and construction supervision in the mining industry, was defined successively by ordinances: President of the Council of Ministers and the Ministers of the Internal Affairs and Administration and the Environment, and finally the Act - Geological and Mining Law. The Specialised Mining Authority was abolished on 19 October 2022. The core activities of the SGGUE/SUG were of a control and supervisory and preventive nature. Its staff performed inspections of technical facilities and monitored selected issues. The director of the authority also issued permits for the commissioning of facilities and, in the field of construction, acted in accordance with the building regulations. Thanks to the authority's efforts, mining facilities have made numerous upgrades. For example, open construction switchgear has been replaced by closed construction switchgear. In 2021, the SUG's jurisdiction covered 39 underground mines. The office's supervision included: 261 shafts and small shafts, 319 mine shaft lifts, 8 pieces of equipment, running on a track with an inclination of more than 45°, and 88 main fan stations (208 fans), 387 internal high and medium voltage electrical installations and networks, 49 control rooms, 67 control rooms, as well as 1993 building structures.