For many years Sobieski Mining Company has been carrying out activities aiming at adjusting its products to the clients’ requirements with respect to the grain class and quality parameters.

To meet market demands, the company, for example, produces fuels for the ecological retort boilers which were launched onto the market during the last years. Application of this type of boilers has brought about significant demand for the coal of the grain size from 6 to 25 mm.

At the beginning of December 2009, installation for the production of coal – grain size 6-25 mm called ‘Jaret’ was put into operation in the Mechanical Coal Processing Plant of Sobieski Mining Company. The new product offered to the clients to be fired in the above mentioned boiler types is produced from the enriched coal dust previously sold to Poludniowy Koncern Energetyczny power plants as coal dust type IIA.

The enclosed installation will enable to sieve off from the produced coal dust the required grain size in the amount of circa 600-1000 ton/day of the following quality parameters: heating value 21,000 – 22,000 kJ/kg, ash content 9%, sulfur content circa 1%.

This means the production capacity amounting to 150-250 thousand tons of coal per year which then, according to the latest forecast, can be sold at a higher price by circa PLN 100 per ton. That will bring the additional profit from the coal sales at the level of PLN 15-25 million annually. The installation costs from 2008 to 2009 amounted to PLN 2.2 million and included the documentation and investment execution.

The undertaking will cause the possibility of finding new clients for our coal in the amounts stated above.

The product will mainly be sold to the customers of our trade network as well as to individual clients. One of the potential application of the produced coal will be further processing it into eco-pea coal of the trade name JARET PLUS®, which is a coal fuel developed together with the Institute for the Chemical Processing of Coal. It is a mixture of the coal produced by Poludniowy Koncern Węglowy SA called ‘Jaret’ and high-calorific value fuels available on the Polish market. In 2007, JARET PLUS® was certified with the ecological safety certificate awarded by the Institute for the Chemical Processing of Coal in Zabrze.

The constructed installation will also allow for the reduction of the moisture content in the coal dusts produced for the power plant application as part of the coal dust will be directed to an additional dehydrating sieve. In case of the lower demand for the ‘Jaret’ coal, coal dusts will be directed instead of dehydrating centrifuges to the constructed sieve which will optimize the maintenance costs of the coal dust dehydrating line and ensure the parameters meeting for the coal dusts produced in the company compared to the parameters declared in case of the deliveries to the power plants as well as elimination of discounts repaid to the power plants on account of moisture content exceedance which amount to PLN 500 thousand monthly.

Zbigniew Jagiełło