Gospodarka Surowcami Mineralnymi - Mineral Resources Management

Poland is among the top ten countries in the world in terms of lignite resources (including reserves). With respect to lignite mining, its position is even higher at sixth in the world, fourth in Europe and second in the European Union (EU). The role of lignite in the Polish energy mix is crucial because ~27% of electricity was generated in lignite-fired power plants in 2022. However, there are countries in Europe where the dependence on lignite is much greater and currently in the range of 40–96%. B oth the national and EU climate energy policy assumes the abandonment of lignite as a source of ‘dirty’ electricity within the next two decades. This ambitious goal is achievable but it may be threatened by the geopolitical situation. However, after 2040–2044, a large number of lignite deposits will remain in Poland. The deposits are well recognized and the detailed geology is well documented, with the estimated reserves intended for exploitation amounting to 5.8 Gt. These deposits, like the five which are currently mined, are stratigraphically diverse and characterized by a complex geology, representing different genetic types. In the context of a coal-free energy policy in the EU, the problem of the legal protection of lignite deposits remains. Thus, the question arises of what is next for Polish lignite deposits. They may be managed in the coming decades by using improved unconventional methods, such as in situ or ex situ gasification. Lignite deposits will constitute a strategic reserve in the event of a deep energy crisis caused by an unstable geopolitical situation. Finally, we suggest the urgent introduction of more precise legal changes that would protect at least part of the lignite resources in Poland for future generations.

In many countries around the world, the thermal treatment of waste plays an important role in the waste-management system. As a result, electricity and heat are produced. However, solid residues are produced in the form of bottom ash, fly ash (FA) and air pollution control (APC) residues. Alternative raw material resources are currently being sought, one of which may be anthropogenic materials from waste thermal treatment processes. This paper presents the results of a study on the trace element content of FA and APC residues from three different installations: municipal solid waste incineration (grate boiler), sewage sludge (fluidized bed boiler) and hazardous waste (rotary kiln). Research methods such as ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry), ICP-AES (inductively coupled plasma/atomic emission spectroscopy) and XRD (X-ray diffraction) were used. The results obtained indicate that the chemical composition of FA and APC residues depends mainly on the type of waste being converted, the thermal process and the flue gas treatment method. Ash from sewage sludge incineration in particular contains significant amounts of P and Sb – elements classified as critical raw materials (CRM). In addition, they also contain other valuable metals such as Ag and Zn, in amounts far exceeding the average crustal abundance. In addition, residues from the incineration of hazardous waste may pose a potential risk to the environment due to the presence of significant amounts of heavy metals such as Pb, Cd and Hg.

The economic importance, global market, primary resources and secondary sources of niobium are discussed in this paper. Niobium concentrate is the first commercial product of the enrichment process; however, the overwhelming majority of the niobium concentrate supply is processed into ferroniobium, which dominates international trade. In this form, niobium raw materials are used in the steel industry as an alloying agent (alloy additive). The production of \oxides and other compounds of niobium, such as carbides, alloys and metallic niobium are currently of much less commercial significance. The addition of a very small amount of niobium, of the order of 0.01%, changes the properties of steel fundamentally, increasing its strength, resistance to atmospheric factors or high temperatures, etc. The addition of niobium in other products also changes their properties, e.g. permanent magnets become superconductors. As a result, niobium is currently widely used around the world as a component of sustainable technologies, which has a large positive impact on the environment by reducing the energy and material consumption of the manufacturing processes. The increase in the spectrum of niobium applications in advanced technologies, considered to be the technologies of the future, means that the widely recognized critical importance of niobium continues to grow. It can be assumed that the war between Ukraine and Russia will cause significant disturbances in the global metals market, including that for niobium.

In contrast to the western part of the Lower Silesia, information about the basalt-derived weathering crusts occurring in the Opole region is rather limited. However, in 2018, significant volumes of such regolith (about 20,000 m3) were discovered during development works in the NW part of the Rutki Quarry near Niemodlin. This weathering crust is rich in clay minerals and represents a smectite- kaolinite mixture with some halloysite, the latter being a poorly ordered member of the kaolinite group. The minerals of the smectite group contain in their interlayer spaces bivalent cations (calcium and magnesium), which is the most often case in the nature. The mineral composition of the regolith mass is supplemented by iron-containing phases, i.e. goethite and magnetite, and traces of phosphate mineral – crandallite. A significant amount of clay minerals, particularly those belonging to the smectite group and halloysite, results in high value of the specific surface area (up to 100 m2/g) of the studied crust. Such favorable property of the crust makes it a promising sorptive raw material that can be applied, even in an unprocessed form, for waterproofing. It must be emphasized that the sorption properties of basalt weathering crusts were noticed some centuries ago in the western part of Lower Silesia, where medicine called terra sigillata was produced from them. Moreover, the crust from Rutki was also used in the XIXth century, in a ceramic manufacture located in nearby Tułowice, where the so-called “Silesian black porcelain” was produced.

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) enables the obtaining of high-resolution images of sample surfaces by recording secondary electrons (SE) or backscattered electrons (BSE) characterized by depth of field and high resolution. Observations using scanning electron microscopy are widely used in many fields of science. The authors show that scanning electron microscopy is also one of the key technique used in the study of the metallurgical slags components. The research was performed for three types of slag following the production of Zn and Pb collected from an old dump in Ruda Śląska – Bykowina. The slag components were identified, morphology and chemical composition of the crystalline phases were characterized and the chemical composition of glaze was determined. Based on observations using secondary electrons, two areas with diverse morphology were identified in slag resulting from the production of cast iron: fragments with coarse structure and visible crystallites of phase components, and a vitrified material with a smooth, non-fractured surface and numerous regular- and round-shaped pores. It was found that in the surroundings of the dominant glaze (rich mainly in Si, Ca and Al) in all types of slags, well-developed crystals of phase components can be distinguished: in slag no. 1, these are Fe-Mg silicates; in slag no. 2, they are aluminosilicates of Ti and K; in slag no. 3, the presence of fine needle-shaped crystals containing Al and Si was found, which indicates the presence of mullite. During the storage in the dumping ground, numerous secondary minerals crystallize in the pores of the slag. Pores are the remains of the degassing of the slag melt during its cooling – hematite and barite were identified among them.

This article aims to identify and assess the impact of capital structure factors on financing strategies of mining industry enterprises in Central and E astern E uropean (CEE ) countries in comparison to W estern E uropean (WE ) Union countries. T he research contributes to determining which of the main theories of capital structure best describes the financial strategies employed in the examined sector. T he analysis encompasses mining companies from eight WE and four CEE countries, utilising panel data models with information spanning from 2000 to 2020. T he study covers various firm-specific variables commonly employed in similar research, along with the effects of country and year.
The main findings indicate a significant similarity in both the capital structure and the influence of the analysed factors on leverage across the two regions. This homogeneity is attributed to the industrial specificity of the mining sector, which appears to supersede country-specific or firm-size specific features. Moreover, examining the impact of variables on capital structure considering different debt maturity terms reveals that the financial strategies of the analysed companies align with the pecking order and agency theory of capital structure. T his suggests that mining companies predominantly rely on internal financing, viewing debt primarily as a tool to discipline managers. Due to data limitations in the employed BACH database, the study does not encompass all EU countries, highlighting the potential for further research incorporating other regions. T he identified similarities in capital structure, along with the impact of various factors, provide insights for financial decision-makers in mining firms, and investors operating in both CEE and WE EU countries. Str

This article proposes an unconventional approach to the division of mining royalties between various administrative units affected by mining activities. Typically, a mining royalty is considered the own income of the units where the exploitation is performed and is usually calculated in relation to the tonnage (volume) of the extracted mineral or the value of the raw material produced. In the article, a different approach has been proposed in order to ensure a useful and fair division of the royalty wherein the unit levy calculation approach was combined with the income criterion using Aumann- Maschler bargaining sets. The case study of the Racibórz II-Reservoir 5 pebble deposit, located within three administrative units (districts) in southern Poland was considered. The exploitation of the deposit within each of the districts requires the separate consent of the local authorities, and in the analyzed case, it is currently conducted in two districts. In terms of income, achievable revenues from exploitation for various alliances of the districts that provide the deposit for mining were calculated. The feasible revenues were transformed into appropriate streams of the mining royalty distribution. It was pointed out that the solutions suggested by the Aumann-Maschler bargaining sets can be treated as a fair division. Proper royalty allocation can be an effective, flexible and important factor in encouraging the district authorities to consent to the exploitation. The adoption of solutions based on the Aumann-Maschler bargaining set will meet the requirement of the full use of mineral resources and is an example of externalities compensation resulting from mining activities.

In order to address the difficult problem of ball mill load identification during milling operation, the multi-scale fuzzy entropy algorithm is introduced into ball mill load identification and an innovative ball mill load identification method is proposed- the complete integrated empirical decomposition based on adaptive noise (CEEMDAN)-joint denoising with wavelet thresholding-multi-scale fuzzy entropy biased mean value (PMMFE) ball mill load identification method. Firstly, the vibration signals of ball mill bearings are denoised by the CEEMDAN-wavelet threshold joint denoising method and the analysis reveals that this method has obvious advantages over other denoising methods; secondly, the fuzzy entropy, multi-scale fuzzy entropy, and multi-scale fuzzy entropy deviation of denoised vibration signals are computed, the relationship between each entropy feature and the mill load is analysed in-depth and in an information-rich manner. Finally, the least squares support vector algorithm is used to identify the load of the feature vector. The analysis of the measured vibration signals reveals that the overall recognition rate of this method is 84.4%, which is significantly higher than that of other denoising methods and the combination of feature parameters, and the experiments show that the mill load recognition method based on CEEMDAN-wavelet thresholding-PMMFE is able to effectively identify the different loading states of ball mills.

This work aimed to verify forecasts of temperature and mineralization of the Lower Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous waters in the Polish Lowlands, based on new geological information. In the first part of the articles series, entitled Verification of geothermal conditions in the Polish Lowlands based on data from new drilling performed in the years 2000–2022, an analysis of geothermal conditions is presented, while this work focuses on hydrogeochemical parameters, such as temperature in the top of formations and water mineralization. For this purpose, data from the Central Geological Database (CBDG), the Central Bank of Hydrogeological Data – HY DRO Bank, and from previously published scientific and research works were used. In the years 2000–2023, twenty-four exploration wells with a depth exceeding 1000 m below ground level were drilled and documented in the Polish Lowlands, providing information on the temperature and mineralization of waters taken from the Lower Jurassic or Lower Cretaceous formations. The assessment of spatial changes, as in the first part of the work, was performed with the use of QGIS Desktop 3.24.1 software, which is geoinformation software (GIS ) that allows viewing, editing, and analyzing spatial data and the creation of maps. The presented analysis made it possible to make a spot, local correction of the projected course of the isoline in relation to the maps published earlier in the Atlas of geothermal resources in the Polish Lowlands. Mesozoic Formations developed in 2006, edited by Wojciech Górecki.