Maintaining a single job in the loss-making part of Poland’s coal mining sector costs taxpayers around PLN 450,000 a year. It would be cheaper to pay miners their salaries without requiring them to extract coal. And yet, without thermal coal, Poland would not have electricity.
Hard coal production has been declining year after year. In 2025, Polish mines produced 42.8 million tonnes of hard coal, 1.2 million tonnes less than in 2024. Sales amounted to nearly 43.2 million tonnes, more than 0.6 million tonnes higher year on year, according to PAP data from 3 June 2026. In 2024, output stood at almost 44 million tonnes, with sales of 42.5 million tonnes. In 2023, production reached 48.3 million tonnes, with sales of around 46.2 million tonnes, while in 2022 output amounted to 52.8 million tonnes and sales to about 52.4 million tonnes.
In 2025, consumption of thermal hard coal stood at 37.8 million tonnes, 0.6 million tonnes lower than in 2024. Imports fell by 26% to 3 million tonnes. Nevertheless, coal still accounts for more than 52% of electricity generation in Poland. Its share in the energy mix fell by 3 percentage points in 2025, while the share of renewable energy sources increased by 0.7 percentage points to 31.4%, according to a report by Forum Energii.
On average, coal extraction costs around PLN 800 per tonne. Since its market value does not exceed USD 100, each tonne extracted generates a loss of PLN 300–400 for producers.
Money for Mine Closures
In 2026, the government allocated around PLN 7.5 billion to the hard coal mining sector, of which approximately PLN 5.5 billion went to subsidies for reducing production capacity and phasing out unprofitable mines. The remaining funds were earmarked for social protection measures. A year earlier, the Polish government allocated PLN 9 billion to the hard coal sector.
This means that taxpayers contribute around PLN 125,000 to every person employed in mining, according to Minister Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, cited by WNP. Last year, the total net loss of the hard coal mining sector exceeded PLN 8 billion, compared with more than PLN 11 billion in 2024.
According to assumptions, state budget subsidies for coal mining could amount to between PLN 31 billion and PLN 83 billion by 2040, depending on the scenario implemented under the draft National Energy and Climate Plan.
Foreign Competition
Polish mining is expensive because coal is extracted from deep mines, sometimes as deep as one kilometre underground. When competing with open-pit mines in South Africa, Australia, the United States or Indonesia, deep mines generate losses rather than profits.
Prices of thermal hard coal in ARA ports — Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam — stand at slightly above USD 100 per tonne. On 4 June 2026, the price was USD 134.05 per tonne. Australian coking coal, needed for steel production, cost USD 249 per tonne on the same day. In China, coking coal prices rose to around USD 150 per tonne.
Importers have to sell coal at prices that make economic sense for them. Domestic producers should also produce and sell coal at prices that allow them to break even. However, the mines in the Jastrzębie region that produce coking coal extract it from deep deposits, which significantly raises final costs. It is obvious that coal cannot be sold at prices higher than those available in ARA ports, but this basic market reality still seems poorly understood in Poland.
The high losses of Polish mining are caused not only by deep deposits, but also by high labour costs and the large number of mine employees who do not work directly in extraction or coal processing. For mines, they represent an additional burden — in other words, an unproductive cost.
Is Importing Coal Profitable?
Poland still faces a dilemma. Since coal is still needed for the power sector, and if it is not to be mined domestically, it must be imported. In 2026, around 8 million tonnes of this fuel are expected to come from imports. But is that economically and strategically viable?
Dr Jerzy Markowski, a former minister responsible for mining, stresses that hard coal extracted in Poland will disappear from the national power system in 2049 as a result of the social agreement for the mining sector signed in May 2021.
“Until then, the current supply of thermal coal, barely exceeding 31 million tonnes a year, will decline as mines are closed, by around 2–3 million tonnes annually,” he says. “The emerging hard coal deficit in Poland will be filled by growing coal imports, which as early as 2026 will amount to around 8 million tonnes — the equivalent of the output of three solid mines in Silesia or the entire Bogdanka mine in the Lublin region. Looking at the decline in production capacity at coal-fired power plants, it can be expected that after 2036 hard coal imports to Poland will rise to more than 20 million tonnes a year,” Markowski argues, cited by Dziennik Zachodni.
Deputy Energy Minister Marian Zmarzły believes that Poland probably cannot afford to implement the accelerated energy transition scenario envisaged in the National Energy and Climate Plan. He refers to arguments made by the social side about the need to maintain coal extraction for security reasons.
He cites data showing that the average share of hard coal and lignite in the energy mix in 2025 was 66%. In winter months, the share of renewables reached only a few to a dozen or so percent.
Referring to the prospects for nuclear power, biomass use or gas imports as a transitional fuel, the deputy minister argues that coal remains very important for Poland, which still has mines, although their output is declining.
“The direction has been set, but this fuel will remain very important for another dozen or so years,” he says.
How Much Do Miners Earn?
Employment in the sector at the end of April 2026 stood at 69,199 people, while at the end of March it had been almost 500 higher. A year earlier, after April, employment amounted to 72,818 people.
The effectiveness of trade unions means that miners, alongside IT experts, are at the top of Poland’s wage rankings. It should be emphasised that underground work is neither easy, light nor pleasant. Anyone who has ever been underground at the coalface knows that it is extremely hard work.
According to Statistics Poland, the average monthly gross wage in the mining and quarrying sector was PLN 12,827 in 2023 and PLN 13,123 in 2024. In months when annual bonuses were paid, it temporarily exceeded PLN 21,400 gross. In Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa, which is close to collapse, the average wage was PLN 16,500 gross, while at LW Bogdanka it was around PLN 14,500 gross. By comparison, the average wage in the entire economy is PLN 8,700, and in industry PLN 8,600.
In 2025, wages accounted for one third of coal companies’ costs, while total labour costs in mining exceeded 50%. Miners’ wages at JSW rose by 38% between 2021 and 2025, despite falling coal prices. The average wage in coal mining increased during this period from PLN 11,873.73 to PLN 12,240.70.
How are wages distributed in the sector? The lowest-paid quarter of miners earn less than PLN 8,320 gross. Another quarter earn more than PLN 16,080 gross. Earnings in mining also depend on special allowances: a 10–15% underground work bonus added to the daily wage; the traditional “thirteenth salary”, known as the Barbórka bonus, paid in early December and amounting to roughly one month’s salary, around PLN 12,000 gross; allowances for working on days off, Sundays and public holidays; and jubilee awards, according to wynagrodzenia.pl.
In an interview published by WNP, Marian Kostempski, former president of Kopex, said that Poland still has coal resources which, with cost optimisation, could be exploited for many years. However, restructuring is necessary, including reducing extraction costs and increasing average labour productivity.
Dr Jerzy Markowski expressed a similar view in an interview with me on Reset Obywatelski. He believes that there are mines capable of extracting coal at lower cost. There are also potential investors interested in opening access to new deposits.
An Outdated Social Agreement
The social agreement signed in May 2021 by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki provides for the gradual phasing out of hard coal mining. Under its provisions, Poland is to stop extracting hard coal in 2049. But extraction costs are effectively forcing an acceleration of this process.
Trade unions, however, are resisting, even though they did not protest under the Law and Justice government when the closure of Polish mines by 2049 was agreed with them. Nor did they protest when, in 2022, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński said that in a market economy it is impossible to maintain mines that continuously generate losses.
The Problem with JSW
Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa is the largest producer of coking coal in the European Union and one of the most important producers of coke used in steelmaking. However, the group failed to take advantage of the favourable market conditions for this raw material.
It was unable to make use of the period when coking coal cost USD 450 per tonne. Over three years, extraction costs rose by 60% instead of falling, while productivity declined by 30%. When coking coal cost USD 140 per tonne, JSW closed 2025 with a loss of PLN 6.255 billion.
Today, coking coal costs around USD 250 per tonne, but JSW is still making losses and is being forced to cut costs. In the first quarter of this year, the company recorded a consolidated net loss of PLN 615.9 million and an EBITDA loss of PLN 238.6 million. A year earlier, it had posted a net loss of PLN 1.36 billion and an EBITDA loss of PLN 1.23 billion. The company’s new management is now trying to solve the problem.
In order to help JSW reduce costs by cutting employment, the government changed regulations in autumn 2025 so that social support could be paid not only to miners leaving thermal coal mines, but also to those leaving coking coal mines, including JSW.
New agreements currently being concluded with the defence industry offer an opportunity for specialists leaving mines. Today’s miner is no longer simply a man with a shovel, but usually a skilled worker — an electrician, plumber, welder or other specialist.
The Industrial Structure of Silesia Has Already Changed
Defenders of Silesian coal now face a serious problem. Professor Andrzej Rzońca of the Warsaw School of Economics, speaking to Przemysław Jedlecki in the Katowice edition of Gazeta Wyborcza, argues that mining is no longer an important sector either for Silesia or for Poland as a whole.
He points out that in Silesia there are four industrial sectors whose sold production is higher than that of mining. In the automotive industry it is three times higher, and the same is true for metal products, rubber and plastics, and food production.
The Silesian economy also has a more serious problem than the results of the mining sector, Przemysław Jedlecki emphasised in Gazeta Wyborcza. Industry in Poland and Silesia is highly energy-intensive, and high energy costs limit competitiveness and investment. Polish companies already pay almost 60% more for electricity than their foreign competitors. A declarative reduction in energy costs by presidential decision will not make transmission and production costs lower.
Bartłomiej Derski of Wysokie Napięcie once calculated how much taxpayers pay to maintain one job in the loss-making part of Polish mining. From 74,000 mining jobs, he subtracted 32,000 JSW employees, 6,000 LW Bogdanka employees and around 17,000 workers employed at those mines of Polska Grupa Górnicza that could potentially be profitable.
The result was that PLN 9 billion in subsidies supports the maintenance of just 20,000 jobs. Put simply, this means around PLN 450,000 a year in subsidies per employee — more than that employee’s salary. It would be cheaper to pay miners their salaries without requiring them to extract coal in mines. And yet, without thermal coal, Poland would not have electricity.
Author
Jarosław J. Szczepański is a member of the Polish Economic Society. He first became involved in mining issues while working for Express Wieczorny in the mid-1970s, when the four-brigade work system was being introduced. He has written about mining, among others, in Tygodnik Solidarność in 1981 and 1989, Trybuna Górnicza, Polityka and Tygodnik Powszechny.
He was an adviser to the underground mining branch of Solidarity from 1983. Between 1984 and 1986, he ran the underground monthly Górnik Polski. He was a negotiator during the miners’ strikes of 1980 and 1988 and secretary of the Solidarity team for mining affairs at the Round Table talks in 1989.
His publications include O strajku, Manifeście Lipcowym, Jastrzębiu i o tym, co się tam działo do stanu wojennego opowiada Tadeusz Jedynak, published in Poznań by the Institute of Popular Culture in 2021; Górnik Polski. Ludzie z pierwszych stron gazet, published by Iskry in Warsaw in 2005; and in 2007 he prepared for PZU a report on safety and accident rates in coal mining.
