Gospodarka Surowcami Mineralnymi - Mineral Resources Management

The paper presents, in the synthetic way, the basic types of coal preparation plants that work is Poland. The technological scheme of coking coal preparation plants is described as well as two typical schemes of steam coal preparation plants. Some attention is paid to operating in coal preparation plants sections of preparation and dcsulphurization of coal fines. The technologies of coal recovery from flotation tailing ponds and recovery of mining wastes arc also mentioned.

The aim of the paper is to describe the situation concerning brown and hard coal preparation in Czech Republic. This paper gives the details of the brown coal preparation process in the North Bohemian Brown Coal Basin and the hard coal preparation process in the Ostrava-Karvina Coal Basin.

The paper investigates the growing concentration of coal production in the Polish mining sector in the years 1993-2005 in collieries belonging to the Coal Corporation S.A. revealing improvement of productivity both in terms of overall productivity and productivity of underground operations.

The concept of marketing management in the minerals sectors is understood as defining the marketing goals of a mining company, its available resources, market operations, further opportunities as well as planning necessary to achieve those goals. Marketing management in the minerals sector involves: 1) active response of a mining company to the market conditions, 2) acknowledgement of the key importance of marketing for a company to effectively integrate marketing with other management functions. 3) development of an integrated marketing methodology on the company's level. Consequently, the marketing management in a mining company is a sequence of decisions based on market observations, analysis and research, involving planning, management and coordination of production and sales operations to ensure the effective .,·arkct policy. The underlying principle of marketing management is that all decisions should be based on market information. both in the area of production and sales.

In order to ensure successful exports of minerals and metals the current information is required about the situations on the importers' markets. Properly conducted foreign market research facilitates the data collection, at the same time minimising the risks due to exporters' mistakes and helping formulate an effective marketing strategy. Table I shows the main categories of exporters' decisions: those relating to production, exports, promotion, financial and marketing management. The rows show the key aspects of marketing research. It is readily apparent that these decisions depend on the marketing research. However, insufficient awareness of the importers' demands and the competition on the foreign markets may lead to the situation where companies lose the deal or come to limit their export levels.

The paper outlines the direct and indirect methods of gathering information about foreign markets forminerals. The division of information sources into internal (within the companies) and external ones (outside the company) is taken into account. Furthermore, the categories ofdomestic and foreign sources ofinformation are considered. The sources and methods ofgathering information arc reviewed, revealing a number ofdiverse methods. When used properly, they ensure that all vital information is available to mining companies.

The amount of knowledge and tools to make the environmental risk assessment of old landfills and polluted industrial areas has already been very large. The tools of such activities applied in the United States and Great Britain can be found on the internet websites www.nap.edu and some publications on the website of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (www.cpa.gov) arc available free of charge. The selection of the applied algorithms, parameters and scale of grades depends on the available data or the possibilities of obtaining them, which is practically impossible for most landfills in Poland. To estimate the risk and classify the objects requiring repairing measures, a mathematical formula has been created for Poland. To define the nuisance made by landfills for the environment two parameters were introduced: -parameter ofwaste accumulation UN, defined as the ratio ofthe synthetic environmental risk index (R) to the amount of deposited wastes, -parameter of the neutralization ofwastes U u, defined as the ratio of the synthetic environmental risk index (R) to the number of residents sending wastes to the landfill.

In 2002 MMSD Report it was stated that "in a well-functioning market economy, the price paid for a mineral commodity-as for any other good or service -should reflect the full marginal costs of both production and use". It could have lost some of actuality now, when most of raw mineral commodities prices is rising, but it can be still true for European producers, especially when new ecological charges arc anticipated. Mining is one of most environmentally destructive activities, often producing high output of waste. The idea that mining companies have the responsibility to manage and pay for the rehabilitation of mine sites during and after production is now widely accepted. Usually a mine, together with the processing plant and the tailings and waste-rock facilities, will only be in operation for a few decades, but mine voids, tailings and waste-rock may remain long after termination of the mining activity. Therefore special attention needs to be given to the proper closure, rehabilitation and after-care of these facilities. Moreover, all operators from the extractive industry should secure sufficient financial means to ensure the eventual full reinstatement of the waste management facilities for which they arc responsible. EU Environmental Policy promotes the green market economy, which include internalisation of environmental and social costs as well as subsidies reform to achieve environmental efficiency. The introduction of environmental charges cause an increase of the production cost and influence the company competitiveness. Therefore the level of any charges for any pollutant should be uniform within the EU. In this paper operating activity of mining companies is analysed, in the aspect of EU enlargement, valid and prepared legislation, environmental initiatives, but most of all - with the consideration of common market conditions determining production costs. The main emphasis is put on costs of waste management, especially for tailings, as for obligatory funds, taxes, fees and charges related to environmental protection (monitoring and post-closure, waste disposal, ctc.). Comparisons of different economic instruments for environmental protection in chosen countries and total operating costs for waste management is also presented.