Polcarbo in its 17th year of mining at OKD

KARVINÁ – The January results of the contractor team led by Chief Foreman Grzegorz Dąbek from the Krzysztof Sędkowski`s section in the CSM Mine that rapidly mastered the new POP 2010 programme technique and ranked among the most successful stoping teams within OKD, once again focused attention to one of the traditional and, at the same time, largest contractor firms working for OKD – to Polcarbo, s.  r. o. We discuss its history and current problems with Karel Sniegoň, the firm’s managing director.

How long has Polcarbo been operating in OKD and which coalmines do its crews work in?

On May 18 this year, it will be exactly 17 years since the first group of our firm’s employees went down to work its first shift. It was at the CSM North mining plant. The crew comprising 36 persons then started to work as a clearing crew in coalface No. 230 110. It proved its knack for mining by significantly cutting down the deadline set for clearing 93 sections of the DVP 7A shield. “It is done!“ they announced fifteen days later! From that time on, with the exception of two years, our mineworkers have been working in the Darkov and CSM Mines. The interruption of the operation was caused by the decision of the Karvina`s Employment Office. At present, almost 550 Polcarbo`s employees work in the two mines mentioned above.

What kind of work do you do and what results have you attained?

One compact team works in the Darkov Mine. As required, it equips or clears the workplace, or, alternatively, it also extracts coal. At the same time, we have here one drifting crew; other persons along with the Darkov Mine employees form a mixed Czech-Polish stoping crew that works under the direction of Miroslav Prekop, an experienced Darkov Mine Chief Foremen. In the CSM Mine, we have two complete stoping crews and we started to build a preparatory section there, too.

Historically the best result was attained by the stoping crew of the Chief Foreman Wiesław Polak and the Chief of the Section Stanisław Matula in 2001 in the CSM Mine. In a single day, the production climbed to the level of 7200 tons. In general it can be said that on the whole we meet the production targets on a regular basis. Since 1999 till this day, we have extracted almost 5 million tons of coal for OKD.

How would you describe the collaboration with the management of the coalmines?

Throughout the years of our operation within the OKD we have got to know each other very well and we know what to expect from each another. In my opinion, collaboration is good. We appreciate the confidence from the part of the management of both mines without which work is impossible. This is best proved by the fact that the CSM Mine management assigned coalface No. 320207 equipped with the POP 2010 technology to our team from the section led by Krzysztof Sędkowski.

Have your observed the impact of the world financial crisis on your company as well?

Unfortunately, yes. As a result of the crisis, the sales opportunities must have deteriorated because the demand for high-quality coking coal at prices valid until recently is considerably limited. In our firm, this resulted in particular in decreased sales in the first months of this year as compared to the preceding year. Moreover, we were forced to discharge sixteen employees.

In your opinion, what could or should change in the relationship with OKD?

For our firm, mutual relations with the management of the mining plants are of paramount importance. In the previous answer, I have already described these relations as very good. This implies that the relationship with the OKD management can be described in the same way. The fact that our firm has been contributing to the OKD results for so many years already is evidence to this.

(Jan Kurial)