The Pol-Alpex team rewrote the OKD's historical tables

DARKOV –  The expected has become a reality. The new OKD's record in the annual output by a single team is 1 million 169 thousand 230 tons of coal! For the year 2009, it was established by the Pol-Alpex 2 stoping team from a contractor firm bearing the same name.

The team is lead by Tadeusz Czaja, chief foreman, Józef Ulman, chief of the section, and Czesław Witek, head of operations. The stopes No. 40 203 and 40 204 in Plant 3 of the Darkov Mine were the venue of the record-breaking performance. The mining set introduced within the scope of the POP 2010 programme was the machinery employed. Its backbone consists in the DBT Shield 2600/5500 self-advancing roof support and the Eickhoff SL 500 shearer loader.

The new record amount exceeds the previous annual output record of 1 067 124 tons by 100 thousand tons. It was established in the Darkov Mine as well in 2006 by a different contractor, the Pol-Alpex 1 stoping team, lead by Janusz Siwek, chief foremen, and Józef Tomczyk, chief of the section. It is worth mentioning that the Tadeusz Czaja´s team managed to reach this extraordinary annual achievement in a mere nine months, because for three months between June and August 2009 it worked on the relocation of “its“ machinery from the finished stope No. 40 203 to the new stope No. 40 204.

As Czesław Witek, the head of operations, informed, the team of Polish miners including almost 120 persons including the management and technicians, intends to continue in its effort to set up new records. As soon as in January, it would like to beat its own monthly output record of 197,162 tons that was achieved in March last year. It wishes to do so in the stope No. 40 204 that is almost 174 metres long (minus 50 cm) and between 4.80 and 5.20 metres high. “I should not speak too soon but we have a really ambitious team here that is confident enough and sets high targets for itself. Its dream is to reach a monthly output, the amount of which would start with the digit 2. I do not know whether we succeed to reach this target now already, but anything can happen. However, we know that we are capable of doing that,“ Czesław Witek said.

The Polish team is also rated as a top team by the management of the Darkov Mine. This is the reason why it wants to rely on it in the years to come, too. “At the same time, its results are the best confirmation of the validity of the chosen path towards the modernisation of the OKD equipment within the scope of the POP 2010 programme. I am convinced that the Pol-Alpex 2 team can do even better. The experience that its members reaped from their work with the new technical equipment along with the advantages of the modern stoping technology are a prerequisite for further output increases. This is the only way how to stand up to competition in the current challenging economic environment,“ Jan Huplík, the Darkov Mine production manager concluded.

(Bohuslav Krzyžanek)