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Poland Minerals and Fuels
Coal is Poland's most important mineral resource. In
1980
total reserves were estimated at 130 billion tons. The
largest
coal deposits are located in Upper Silesia in the
southwestern
part of the country, where large-scale mining began in the
nineteenth century. Silesian deposits, generally of high
quality
and easily accessible, accounted for about 75 percent of
the
country's hard coal resources and 97 percent of its
extraction in
the 1980s. The Lublin region of eastern Poland was
exploited in
the 1980s as part of an expansion program to supplement
Silesian
hard coal for industry and export. But development of this
relatively poor, geologically difficult, and very
expensive field
ended in 1990. A number of unprofitable Upper Silesian
mines also
were to be closed in the early 1990s.
Poland also has significant quantities of lignite in
the
district of Zielona Góra in the west and in two districts
located
in the central part of the country between the Vistula and
the
Oder rivers. This low-quality fuel has been used on a
large scale
for the production of electricity, despite its very
damaging
effect on the environment
(see Environment and Pollution
, ch. 2).
Plans called for gradual reduction of lignite extraction
and use
in the 1990s
(see Fuels and Energy
, this ch.).
Natural gas is extracted mostly in Upper Silesia, Lower
Silesia, and in the southeastern part of the country.
Production
expanded in the 1960s and 1970s, then declined in the next
decade. In 1989 domestic production covered 43 percent of
the
country's total requirement.
A major offshore oilfield was discovered in the Baltic
Sea in
1985. Including that field and the older fields in the
Carpathian
Mountains in southeastern Poland, total oil reserves were
estimated at 100 million tons in 1990. Poland remained
heavily
dependent on the Soviet Union for petroleum throughout the
1980s.
Large reserves of sulfur at Tarnobrzeg and Staszów in
the
south-central region make that material Poland's most
important
nonmetallic export mineral. Favorable geological
conditions have
supported large-scale operations in three mines yielding
about 5
million tons annually. About 3 million tons of sulfuric
acid,
along with several other chemicals, are produced each
year.
Poland has limited deposits of some nonferrous metal
ores.
The most significant is copper, which is extracted in
large
quantities at ten mines in Lower Silesia in southwestern
Poland.
Copper production expanded greatly after discovery of
major new
deposits in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1990 annual copper ore
output
was about 26 million tons, and 51 percent of electrolytic
copper
was exported. In 1982 Poland had the world's fifth-largest
deposits of lead and zinc (which occur in association).
The
annual output of lead and zinc ores was about 5 million
tons,
supporting annual production of 164 thousand tons of zinc
and
78,000 tons of lead. In 1990 about 76 percent of Poland's
zinc
and nearly all its lead were used by domestic industry.
Although Poland had some fairly large iron ore
deposits, this
ore requires enrichment before processing. Until the
1970s, the
main source of iron ore was the district of Czestochowa;
but
output there declined sharply in the early 1980s, and
other
deposits were of poor quality or provided such small
quantities
that exploitation was unprofitable. The country depended
on iron
imports from the Soviet Union and Sweden to support the
rapid
expansion of the steel industry that was a high priority
in the
communist era.
Rich deposits of salt provide an important raw material
for
the chemical industry. Salt mining, which began in the
Middle
Ages, was concentrated in the Wieliczka-Bochnia area near
Kraków
until the middle of the twentieth century; then the major
saltmining operations moved to a large deposit running
northwest from
ód in central Poland. Salt is extracted in two ways: by
removing it in solid form and by dissolving it
underground, then
pumping brine to the surface. Annual output declined from
6.2
million tons in 1987 and 1988 to 4.7 million tons in 1989.
Other
mineral resources include bauxite, barite, gypsum,
limestone, and
silver (a byproduct of processing other metals).
Data as of October 1992
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