The Polish Geological Institute in the System of Management and Protecting of Polish Mineral Raw Materials MIDAS carries out the registration of data on all of the mineral raw material deposits and resources base and on the output and developing possibilities. The system is a base to carry out the registry of Polish mineral raw materials deposits and to prepare the paper “Bilans zasobow kopalin i wod podziemnych w Polsce” which has been issued annually since 1953. Usually the title of the paper mentioned about is translated as “Balance of Raw Material and Groundwater Resources in Poland” but in the authors opinion this translation should be changed into “Annual Report of Mineral Reserves/Resources and Groundwater Resources in Poland”. The present publication “Mineral Resources of Poland” is based on the Polish paper mentioned about which was published in 2005 (as of 31 December 2004). The paper contains the data on 8.8 thousand deposits with the resources that amounts 193 milliard tons. The chapters referring to the particular Fuels and Mineral Commodities are presented in alphabetical order. The tables concerning the resources, output as well as Polish exports and imports of mineral raw materials have been taken from the Polish edition. In the last five years the positive hydrocarbons exploration results had a significant impact on the mineral raw material deposits management. The most important were a discovery and an exploitation decision of natural gas fields Bronsko with more than 14,000 million m3 of economic reserves. At the same time some of the smaller natural gas and crude oil fields were developed. Besides, hard coal and lignite output amounted to 100,000 and 60,000 tons per year accordingly and stabilized. It points out that the energetic raw materials are still very important for Polish extractive industry sector. A substantial impact on Polish economy have also metallic raw materials as copper, silver, zinc and lead and also the numerous and big deposits of common rock raw materials as raw material base for building, ceramic, lime and cement industries. In the last few years some of chemical raw materials as sulfur, barite and fluorspar lost their magnitude. The tables summarising the volume and the directions of imports and exports show only raw materials of major importance in the international turnover. The criterion for including the particular raw material in the table was the volume of its imports and exports in 2004, which had to reach the minimum value of PLN 10,000 thousand. The number of countries in the tables has been limited, in principle, to those whose turnovers with Poland amounted to not less than PLN 500 thousand. The terminology and classification of the resources used in this paper is an attempt to adapt the national classification to the United Nations International Framework Classification for Reserves/Resources (Solid Fuels and Mineral Commodities) in principle accepted by the UN Economic and Social Council in Geneva, in 1996 (Workshop -1995, Energy/ WP.1R.77 -1997). The work on improvement and acceptation of the terminology is being carried on in non-European countries (Guidelines to the United Nations International Framework classification for reserves/resources 2000). The United Nations International Classification for Reserves/Resources is presented in Table I.1. The adaptation of Polish terminology to the UN Classification standards is a continuation of such attempts (M. Niec, 1995; M. Piwocki, S. Przenioslo, 1997; M. Niec, M. Piwocki, S. Przenioslo, 2000). The greatest terminological difficulties in the translation into English concerned the classification of resources. For instance, it worthy of notice that no distinction is made in Polish between the terms “reserves” and “resources” and they are expressed by one word “zasoby”. This is reflected in the presentation of the total national resources. The Polish Geological Survey is responsible for estimation of national raw materials resources based on a geological study stage. The term “Total Resources” covers not only Proved Mineral Resources (in place) and/or Probable Mineral Resources but also Economic Reserves. Economic Reserves separately are specified in a document corresponding to Prefeasibility Study. For better understanding and making possible the use of the original Polish publications concerning the management of resources, we present below the UN classification (Table I.1), followed the corresponding Polish terms.
For the most important Polish raw materials the table has been compiled (Table 1.2), containing Polish classification and UNFC classification of resources/reserves as of 31 December 2004. For oil and natural gas the data are assessed only within the national classification. The example of adoption of the UNFC classification for two Polish oil/gas fields – Koscian and BMB – was presented during the session of Exports and Supply of Fossil Fuels in Geneva in 10-11 November 2004 (Hoffman M., Przenioslo S., 2004). The formal method of presenting such data regarding to hydrocarbons has not been established yet. Due to the lack of adequate data the Reserve Base assessed in Poland is bigger than the reserves assessed according to the UNFC by several to dozen percent.
Table I.2 The Resources/Reserves of most important raw materials in Poland (in million tons)
*) Resources/Reserves extractable in million tons **) Resources/Reserves extractable in million cubic meters
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