The first in history joint Grand Session and joint jubilee celebrations are the effect of many years of fruitful cooperation between Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa and the AGH University of Science and Technology. The session was attended by the employees and governing bodies of the JSW Group, headed by Management Board President Daniel Ozon, and the students and representatives of the university’s authorities under the leadership of the rector, professor Tadeusz Słomka, PhD Hab. Eng. Attendees included also the representatives of mining-related companies.
The session was opened by professor Marek Cała, the dean of the Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering at the AGH University of Science and Technology. – We are meeting in the very heart of the university. It is here that on 4 October this year we had a grand inauguration of our one hundredth academic year, starting AGH’s centenary celebrations. It’s a good time and a good place to celebrate also the 25 years of Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa. At today’s jubilee session we will hear what JSW is today, what plans it has for the next few years and for the decades to come – said professor Cała.
Then Daniel Ozon, President of the JSW Management Board, took the floor recalling the Company’s history and noting that JSW faces a lot of challenges, which can be resolved with the help of university scientists and graduates. – The Polish mining and our company face a great number of challenges. It is probably easy for me, as a person who is not a graduate of AGH or the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, to talk about these challenges. I can just ask my fellow engineers to resolve them. I trust that the challenges we are facing can be to a large extent resolved. I want to take our cooperation to a higher level and make it even closer – President Ozon said.
The JSW President also pointed to the necessity to prepare for the times of market downturns. The mining industry operates in market trend cycles, hence one cannot hope that worse times will not come again. He also emphasized the necessity to increase production and efficiency. – Improvement of efficiency is very important. Each year we dig deeper and deeper. We have to manage the high temperature and increased pressure. It is a challenge that in Mozambique or in Australia the cost of mining of one ton of coal is 40 dollars whereas we have to pay 90-100 dollars. Today Europe imports 40 million tons of coking coal. Our coking coal production, which amounts to approx. 12 million tons, satisfies only 20 percent of European demand. We are prompted to mine more by our clients. They prefer our product and they don’t want to wait 45-60 days for their coal from Australia. Hence our strategy to increase our resource base, which will result in increasing production from the existing level of 15 to 18 million tons and increasing the share of coking coal to 85 percent – said Daniel Ozon.
Later on, the celebrations moved to hall 220. As of 7 December, this renovated modern hall, made of up of several rooms, has been named the JSW Lecture Hall. The renovation was funded by the Company. – This is a new lecture hall at the Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering of the AGH University of Science and Technology. You can see the effects yourselves: new, light, spacious hall with the logos of JSW and our faculty. Everything is in light colors, to make it easier, lighter and nicer to gather and hold meetings of the faculty council, seminars or conferences here. We owe this hall to the many years of cooperation with JSW – noted professor Cała during the grand opening of the JSW Lecture Hall.
– In this modern hall, you can see that today’s celebrations are not only a joint jubilee, but also cooperation. I hope that this room will host numerous students who will later on find a job in the Company – said President Ozon.
The next important point in the celebrations was the grand meeting of the AGH Senate on the occasion of the Miners’ Day.
– Mining has been and will continue to be an important element of Poland’s and the world’s economy. It’s hard to image the development of our civilization without raw materials – hydrocarbons, or chemical and construction raw materials. Coal has become recently a synonym of dirty power generation, despite the fact that production of electricity emits as much greenhouse gases as cattle farming – noted professor Tadeusz Słomka, AGH rector, at the session.
During the session, the dean of the Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering, handed in, for the 8th time, honorary distinctions granted to persons who with their work and attitude have contributed to development of mining. This year the winners of the “Cristal Barbórka” award were the JSW President Daniel Ozon and the President of the State Mining Authority Adam Mirek. The “Cristal Barbórka" is the highest and the most prestigious form of distinction and appreciation of AGH’s Faculty of Mining and Geoengineering for persons who have particularly contributed to its development and scientific and educational success. The celebrations ended with a traditional Barbórka miners’ party.
