"Bilans Zasobów Złóż Kopalin w Polsce" – historia rozwoju

Abstract

The Balance of Mineral Resources Deposits in Poland – the history of development.A b s t r a c t. The publication dedicated to the balancing of mineral resources deposits in Poland has been issued since the 1950s, in 2020 the 68th paper book was published. Several institutions have been responsible for the report, in succession: the Central Geology Office (till 1985), the Ministry of the Environmental Protection and Natural Resources (in 1986–1987) and the Polish Geological Institute – National Research Institute (PGI-NRI) (since 1988). At present, carrying out the national balance of mineral resources is one of the tasks performed by the state geological survey which is fulfilled by the PGI-NRI according to the Geological and Mining Law. Since 2003, the task has been financed by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management. There are two main data sources for the mineral resources balancing in Poland: 1) geological documentations collected in the National Geological Archive of PGI-NRI; 2) forms sent to PGI-NRI by concession holders. Initially (in the 1950s), the number of deposits included in “The Balance…” did not exceed several hundred, whereas in the following years the figure has been systematically growing – it exceeded 1,000 in 1960, 4,000 in 1986, 13,000 in 2014 and 14,000 in 2020. Such amount of data need to be processed by the special database – it is called the System of management and protection of mineral resources in Poland MIDAS which has been carried out by PGI-NRI since 1988. The publication presents the data within four raw materials groups (energy, metallic, chemical and rock) divided for chapters. There is also a chapter devoted to water defined as a mineral (brines, curative and thermal water). Each chapter provides information on the location of deposits, quality of raw materials, quantity of resources and output, and the list of deposits according to the administrative or regional order. Except for the book form, “The Balance…” is also placed as a PDF version on the websiteMineral resources of Poland. This web portal, available at http://surowce.pgi.gov.pl both in Polish and English, was established to meet the needs of those interested in the mineral resources sector in Poland. Aside from “The Balance…”, it also includes: – some additional information on particular raw materials; – sets of maps presenting the occurrence of deposits in Poland and the concession areas; – data on export and import of raw materials; – selected definitions and explanations coming from the law acts.