CSM Mine won traveling shaft lamp three times in the last year!

Twice overcoming the absolute monthly mining results, three times overwriting records in the development, historically the second highest loading in the expedition, the best teams in the district in the coalface and in the road heading, nine times more than a hundred-meter advance of mining frontier in a month and winning of quarterly traveling OKD shaft lamp for a three times! That was the year 2011 in the CSM Mine, whose director Boleslaw Kowalczyk, we asked for an interview.

Can you comment the previous year?

I would definitely evaluate it as a successful. We fulfilled, and also exceeded the production and advance. Annual production of 2,862,000 tons of coal was the highest in history. People in the development road headed 18,446 meters. We were able to improve the quality parameters of different assortments of coal to a large extent, and we ranked among the mines with high demand of their products from costumers. The great merit of the results was also the reconstruction of the central haulage at the north plant and its trouble-free operation without any major failures. The involvement of our employees in Continuous Improvement project meant not only saving money but also a number of beneficial changes of technology and technological processes in mining, and in the development. We equiped eleven new faces and disposed the same number of already mined. Improvement was also in the area of ​​safety - the operation of eleven teams had no accident last year.

Is that means, that you were the best in mining?

Success in the mining industry is almost always associated with several inputs - preparation of the field for mining, geological structure, technological equipment and people who are able and willing to handle the job. Finally, luck also plays a role in mining. That all was accumulated last year for us, so that we have achieved the highest annual production in the history of ČSM Mine. We have exceeded the plan of 2.6 million tons by 262,000 tons. We didn´t mine the most, but the best.

What the shaft lamp means for you personally?

I think all people in the world are like to be praised. I am not an exception. A shaft lamp is a kind of appreciation and praise, not only for me but for all CSM Mine.

What do you expect from the next period?

What the year 2012 will brings, depends on what will be the price of coal, and requirements for its quantity. We in the shaft, don´t have too much influence on that. But we will do everything to ensure that the mine will be ready to meet business needs and satisfy our customers. The most important will be handling of move of POP 2010 technology to the other faces and successful operation on these newly prepared fields. We have six coalface teams and their job is to mine 2.75 million tons this year. Sixteen teams from road heading from CSM Mine must road head a total of 16,990 meters.

Radek Lukša