On the turn of the 1980s and 1990s several unfavourable events affected the Polish hard coal mining. Critical for the mining sector were breakdown of the country's request for energy and drop of coal prices on the world market. In the period of 1989-1998, Poland's economic reserves (balance sheet resources) of hard coal decreased by 17%, and the industrial reserves dropped by 41%. Simultaneously, there was and there is still in progress a programme of technical and economic restructuring of the hard coal mining. According to the restructuring programme of coal mining, the total yearly output of Polish hard coalmines will drop from 101 million t in 2003 to 80 million t in 2020. However, there should be taken into consideration that in consequence of 2003-2020 liquidation of consecutive coalmines, ceasing of mining of the coal balance sheet reserves contained in seams below 1.50 m thick as well as other factors may limit the recoverable reserves of coal. In this context, it is highly possible that in the period 2010-2020 the availability of coal resources will be one of the critical problems of hard coal mining in Poland.
