Polska Grupa Górnicza is preparing its specialist repair and production plant for a future with fewer coal orders, and the defence industry is one of the new markets it wants to serve. The company has already obtained a licence for military-grade materials and has been certified for NATO-related procurement procedures.
The Zakład Remontowo-Produkcyjny, or Repair and Production Plant, was set up in December 2003 inside Kompania Węglowa and has operated as part of PGG since 2016. Its original mission was to give the group’s hard-coal mines an in-house base capable of repairing, modernising and producing key machinery used underground.
Today the plant employs more than 540 people. It has eight production halls covering 2.15 hectares, with five in Wola, two in Bieruń and one in Lędziny, plus machine tools able to handle everything from small single parts to large steel structures.
Longwall supports and hydraulics at the core
The heart of the plant’s work is powered roof support sections. It refurbishes worn-out sections, adapts them to new geological and technical conditions, and builds new ones to its own design. It also oversees their unification and standardisation across all PGG mines.
Hydraulics is the second major specialism. Cylinders and other hydraulic elements move the roof supports, allow them to set against the roof and shift forward as mining advances. ZRP repairs those components, manufactures new parts and assembles the control hydraulics.
Other products include elements of suspended monorail tracks used to carry people, materials and equipment underground, as well as components for armoured face conveyors that haul coal from longwall faces. The plant also carries out machining work and handles unusual repair and production requests from the mines.
The technical backup includes metrological, mechanical and metallographic laboratories. They test steel strength, assess material structure and calibrate measuring instruments, so a large part of supply and process inspection can be done on site. There is also a design and technology department, a transport fleet and a welder training centre.
Defence contracts as coal demand falls
Welders make up more than a quarter of the workforce, supported by designers, technologists, metrologists and welding supervisors with international qualifications. Production follows quality management, metal welding and steel construction standards, and the plant holds certificates for environmental, occupational safety and information security management.
PGG expects the plant to keep serving its mines for the coming years and, after the transitional provisions of the Hard Coal Mining Act on mining leaves and severance payments have been completed, employment should remain at around 500 people.
With extraction declining, however, orders tied purely to coal will gradually shrink. The company therefore wants to use its halls, machinery and staff skills for other industrial customers.
One target is defence. In February 2026, PGG received a concession from the Ministry of Interior and Administration for producing and trading explosives, weapons, ammunition and products or technologies intended for the armed forces or police. It also obtained certificates allowing it to take part in tenders run by NATO structures and the armed forces of member states.
– The war beyond our eastern border shows that state security requires a strong army as well as a stable energy and industrial base. Polska Grupa Górnicza has for many years played an important role in ensuring Poland’s energy security. In the future, we also want to use our production, technical and repair competences to support the development of the domestic defense potential – said Łukasz Deja, president of Polska Grupa Górnicza.
Despite the new direction, the plant’s main task remains unchanged: providing technical support for PGG’s mines. The broader business plan is designed to keep using the infrastructure and qualifications built over more than two decades of working on machines that operate in demanding underground conditions. PGG, the largest Polish coal company, continues to focus on supplying coal to the domestic market, including the professional power sector.
Source: WNP.PL, Photo: PGG / Bożena Sieja
