Zakład Górniczy Sobieski

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Processing plants

The coal mine Sobieski (Pol. Zakład Górniczy Sobieski ) is an active coal mine in Jaworzno in Poland. It is operated by TAURON Wydobycie SA.

history

On September 12, 1838, Bory (now part of Jaworzno) was awarded a mine to iron ore to Friedrich Louis Westerholz , but the discovery of the find stopped again after a short time. From 1840 to 1869 the mine belonged to Louis-Philippe de Saint-Genois d'Anneaucourt before the Krakow industrialist Robert Dohms (also spelled Doms) acquired the rights to mine coal. 1873 (later "Pastwisko") with "Jules" in Bory, the first shaft drilled and the associated plant Dohmsgrube called. In 1872 Dohms acquired the fields "Robert I and II" and in 1894 "Irene". In 1873, this mine produced around 12,000 tons of coal with 82 employees. 

At the end of the 19th century, the sole ownership was converted into a Société anonyme in order to improve the capital base through shareholders from Belgium and France. 1905 went Berechtsame and mine completely in Belgian ownership of and Dohm was liquidated. The new owners built the new Sobieski mine almost 2 km west of the old mine , the first task of which was to swamp the mine and rebuild the underground workings. In 1916 the second level was driven at a depth of 215 m and the mine with 979 employees extracted 200,000 t of coal per year.

With the re-establishment of the Polish state at the end of World War I, the ownership structure changed completely. Initially, on the initiative of the state, the city of Krakow took over ownership of the field, even if part of the shares remained in Belgian hands. In 1924 this part was taken over by Giesche Spólka Akcyjna, a subsidiary of Georg von Giesche Erben Breslau, based in Katowice, but sold on to the US group Harriman just two years later. In the first years of the interwar period, the mine produced between 150,000 and 230,000 tons of coal, after which production fell sharply during the Great Depression. The number of employees fell from 1,560 in 1924 to 769 in 1939.

Headframe over the Sobieski shaft

As part of the occupation of Poland by the German troops, the colliery was incorporated into EVOS (Energieversorgung Oberschlesien), an AG based in Katowice. Prisoners from the Auschwitz concentration camp were employed in many EVOS facilities, presumably also at Sobieski. Initially, EVOS invested in the modernization of the shaft system, e.g. B. the electrification of the lines, but soon to neglect all other devices and ruthlessly exploit the system. During this time the mine was sometimes called "Bory" or "Robert". The lack of investment and the supposed exhaustion of the tapped coal reserves therefore led to the decision to temporarily shut down the mine after the end of the war and to rebuild and modernize the Jarwozno / Bierut mine with the help of the workers there . Although then but in 1953 it turned by geological investigations that the working area of the mine, numerous mineable are seams, the bill was from 1954 to 1957 part of "Bierut".

In April 1957 the plant was spun off from "Bierut" and operated independently. In the years that followed, coal conveyor belts and belt conveyors were introduced, a new floor was created at a depth of 385 m and chain shears were used to mine the coal.

Traugutt shaft (?)

As a result of these measures, 460,000 t of coal could be extracted as early as 1960. The number of employees rose to 1,513. On January 1, 1973, the new merger with Jaworzno took place , which continued until this mine was closed.

present

After the closure of the Jaworzno composite mine (a merger of Bierut and Kosciuszko ) and the demolition of almost all daytime facilities , the remaining coal reserves in this area will be mined exclusively from Sobieski , which is accessible via the three shafts "Centralny", "Sobieski" and "Traugutt" disposes. Its authorized area is 56.6 km² and 2,800 employees mine 18,000 tons of steam coal every day. The ZG Sobieski is owned by the TAURON Group.

Ultimately, the new "Grzegorz" shaft in Byczyna was built.

Funding figures

1900: 47,132 t; 1913: 496,695 t; 1938: 238,610 t; 1970: 707,500 tons 

swell

  • Helmut Maier: Development Lines of the Upper Silesian Electricity Industry up to 1945 In: Lutz Budraß / Barbara Kalinowska-Wójcik / Andrzej Michalczyk (ed.). Industrialization and nationalization. Klartext-Verlag Essen 2013.
  • Jerzy Jaros: Słownik histoynczny kopalń węgla na ziemiach polskich . Katowice 1984.
  • Kurt König: The Coal Mining in Upper Silesia from 1945-1955 Scientific contributions to the history and regional studies of East Central Europe. Gottfried Herder Institute. Marburg 1958. 

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