my visit to nowa ruda

Hi guys,

I’m back from holidays.
While in Prague, I’ve decided to take a day trip to Nowa Ruda.

For US$250 I managed to organise a private car with an English speaking driver (Petr) to take me to the mine, wait for me and bring me back.

The picturesque 200km trip to NR took just over 3 hrs.
The mine complex is located in a pretty mountainous area. We even past a ski lift. Very pretty area and well worth visiting in winter.

The mine:

I’ve asked Petr to join me on tour of the mine and help me communicate as Polish and Czech are very similar languages. We went to buy tickets but after I told the cashier that I’m from Australia and a shareholder of Balamara we got in for free. Not that I mind paying $5 to get in but it's always nice to get something for free:)

Although the tour was in Polish our tour guide spoke sufficient English and when he was told that I’m from Australia he made an extra, extra effort to answer any of my questions. After the tour had finished he took me around the whole mine site and showed me the surrounding infrastructure.

He told me that some 2 weeks earlier a delegation from Balamara/Coal Holdings visited the mine and were greeted by Polish TV, radio and a number of journo’s from newspapers as far away as Warsaw. He said that they were very well received by ministers, a senator and other govt representatives.

After we’ve put on helmets and turned our miner’s lights on, we walked over to a big yellow, metal door which was an entry to the mine. That’s Petr in front of the door.

In the next photo, our tour guide is holding one of the shovels that were used to load up the coal onto the carriages. It was very clear that the mine was operated using very basic tools and ancient technology and if they were able to pull out 1.3Mt of coal pa using these archaic techniques I wonder how much more we can pull out using modern techniques.

The next photo shows the actual front desk of the control station.
Close to 6,000 people were working at the mine and this was the front desk up until they closed the mine.

The actual tour took about 1.5 hrs and we walked through over 700m of underground corridors.

The next photo shows the actual shaft:

Ventilation shaft:

The following photo shows railway tracks, which are no more than 100m from the mine. The spur had been disconnected but would take no time to re-install. These tracks are used daily and allow access to anywhere in Europe.

I’ve been told that there is a very strong community and local govt support for the mine to be re-opened. Most locals believe that this mine in particular should not have been closed.
The Polish govt stated that ALL the mines in the area were uneconomical and therefore had to be shut.

No wonder why they were uneconomical. They employed 6,000 workers, used archaic mining techniques, had old equipment dating from the 1950’s and 60’s and the coal price was less than one third of the current price.

Balamara is looking at running the mine with 1,500-2,000 workers, use latest techniques and equipment and the coal price for top quality CC is closer to $180t than $50t at the time the mine was closed. Locals believe that closing of the mine was political and had a lot to do with Poland joining the Eu and the govt wanting to look good and show that they are implementing big reforms.

One message that came across very clear was that there’s no doubt that there are still millions of tons of top quality coking coal there and that there are a number of willing buyers in the close proximity as well as the ever hungry for coal German market (only 150km away from Nowa Ruda).

For me the visit to the mine was very worthwhile as I was able to see it, touch it and talk to the local people. It was also good to see that the infrastructure is right there on site including rail, water and electricity.

There are substantial improvements on site including an unfinished 4 or 5 storey office building mostly completed just before the mine's closure. Walls, floors and roof are all done. It wouldn't take much time to finish it and fit it out saving time and few million dollars.

The weighbridge structure is also ready, just needs a new weighbridge inserted.

This is a substantial project and it's easy to see how this mine could re-open within a 3 year period. I think that if you could speed up all the necessary govt approvals you could have it in production in less than 2 years.

I would strongly recommend anyone going to Europe for holidays to pop in and have a look at Nowa Ruda.

Definitely worth the visit.

If anyone has any questions please let me know and I'll try to answer them.

PS. I have more photos and will post some more later.