An Unprecedented Achievement in the Coal-Mining District: 197,162 Tonnes of Coal

KARVINÁ – Great, magnificent, admirable, exemplary. These are the words that can be used to describe the March performance of the mining team led by Chief Foreman Tadeusz Czaja, Chief of Section Jozef Ulman and Head of Operations Czeslaw Witek, all from Pol-Alpex. During the 31 workdays in March, the Polish “brygada” working at Shaft 3, May 9 Plant of the Darkov Mine dug and extracted almost 200,000 tonnes of coal, an achievement as yet unprecedented in the  long history of OKD.

On April 2^nd, representatives of the record-breaking team led by Ryszard Szeithauer, CEO of Pol-Alpex, received a personal congratulation not only from top managers of the Darkov Mine, but also from OKD’s CEO and Chairman of the Board Klaus-Dieter Beck and OKD’s Operations Manager Leo Bayer.

“We could do that thanks to the conditions provided by the shaft management and OKD,” stated Szeithauer modestly shortly after delivering a ceremonial report to OKD’s CEO. “We appreciate that we can work right here, at the Darkov Mine, and that we have been assigned new modern technologies procured under the 2010 Production Optimization Programme (POP 2010),” said the boss who had brought experienced Polish coalminers to OKD as early as in 1992. “Without the excellent support of the mine management, without the assistance of and good cooperation with Darkov’s electricians, fitters/specialists and central extraction people, this achievement would not have been possible. All of them took their parts in setting the record. 

When congratulating the team, Klaus-Dieter Beck said, among other things: “I am happy it was your team that achieved such an excellent result. It is a proof positive that OKD has been trying to provide to mining teams of contractors exactly the same conditions as to its own employees. We regard you as part of our big OKD family.” At the same time, he admitted he had anticipated the record. “It is just a beginning of what we expect from POP. If we keep it up throughout the year,   we could match the best results achieved by US mines,” said Klaus-Dieter Beck. He then asked those present at the ceremony to take good care of the new technology in order to make full use of its strengths. “Please give my thanks to all members of your team,” he concluded.

Leo Bayer also sees a motivating element in the record achievement. He recalled the previous record achieved last year at the Darkov Mine by another Pol-Alpex team led by Jozef Tomczyk, which was 163,864 in one month. “You have exceeded it significantly and shown that the 200,000 tonnes a month is an achievable goal. We are happy we succeed in increasing productivity, but we must also think of safety and avoid injuries and accidents,” emphasized the Operations Manager.

Technologies used

• Eickhoff SL 500 cutter loader
• PF 6/1042 bench conveyor
• Bucyrus DBT 2600-5500 sections

Featuring

The record-breaking team thanks to

• Electricians led by Josef Jonszta
• Fitters/specialists led by Jaromír Babuliak
• Central extraction team led by Pavel Koláček and Štefan Vičík

(Josef Lys)