Oscislowo mine

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The Oscislowo coal mine was a proposed project located in eastern Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland. The developer ZE PAK cancelled the lignite mine project in September 2020.

Location

The satellite photo below shows the approximate mine location in eastern Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland.

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Background

The Oscislowo open-pit lignite mine is a proposed new mine located at the lignite deposit in eastern Greater Poland Voivodeship. The geological resources of Oscislowo deposit amount to over 41 million tonnes and will be used in the power stations Patnow I and II with total power output of over 1.7 GW. The main investor in the project is ZE PAK SA, a subsidiary of PAK Kopalnia Wegla Brunatnego Konin SA. The opening of the mine has been delayed, as it was initially planned to open in 2018. In order for the operations to start in 2018 as scheduled, the EIA permit was expected to be received by the end of 2016. The Regional Directorate of the Environmental Protection (EP) in Poznań officially declined to decide on the EIA permit on March 10, 2017; therefore, the company has not been able to apply for a mining concession.

The company filed an appeal with the General Directorate of the EP in Warsaw, which upheld the arguments of the Regional Directorate of the EP in Poznań with a decision on November 30, 2017. However, the General Directorate sent the case to be ruled on once more by the Regional Directorate of the EP in Poznań. Both ZE PAK SA and Greenpeace Poland appealed the decision, and on April 12, 2018, the first court verdict was appealed by ZE PAK to the National Administrative Court. The last verdict of the court from October 2018 ordered the General Directorate of Environmental Protection to issue a final verdict on the Ościsłowo EIA. The decision was expected in early 2019.

However, at the end of 2016, ancient tombs were discovered in the location of the planned mine, which were placed on the legally binding list of archaeological monuments on February 9, 2018, which will permanently disqualify the Ościsłowo lignite deposit from extraction.

Cancellation

On September 23, 2020, ZE PAK published a company report detailing impairment losses on its assets which included confirmation that there will be "no exploitation of the Ościsłowo deposit". According to ZE PAK, the key factors behind the decision to abandon the investment were the the length of the decision-making process to obtain a concession for the Ościsłowo field as well as other negative external factors, in particular the rising price of CO2 emissions allowances and the European Union's increasingly ambitious 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target which was proposed by the European Commission earlier in September.

Commenting on the cancellation, Anna Meres from Greenpeace Poland said, "It is an important day for the climate and a huge success for the local community, farmers and non-governmental organisations such as Greenpeace and the Foundation 'Development Yes Open-Pit Mines NO' which have been fighting for years to abandon this harmful investment. This decision shows that pressure makes sense and that coal investments have no future. We hope that similar decisions will also be made with regard to other open-cast mines, such as the extraction of lignite from the Zloczew mine planned by Polska Grupa Energetyczna."

Project Details

• Owner: ZE PAK SA
• Parent Company: PAK Kopalnia Wegla Brunatnego Konin SA
• Location: eastern Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland
• GPS coordinates: 52.4475098,18.2423783 (approximate)
• Mine status: Cancelled
• Start year:
• Mineable reserves: 41 million tonnes
• Coal type: lignite
• Mine size:
• Mine type: Surface
• Production:
• Additional proposed production:
• Equipment: Open pit Mining
• Number of employees:

Articles and resources

Related GEM.wiki articles

• Poland and Coal