With the entry into force of the Act of 16 June 2023 amending the Geological and Mining Act and certain other acts, a new solution was introduced to the issues related to the protection of mineral deposits, namely the possibility of granting the status of a strategic deposit to deposits or parts thereof. A strategic deposit is a mineral deposit which, due to its significance for the economy or security of the country, is subject to special legal protection. It should therefore be recognised that deposits with such status will be considered the most important and valuable for the needs of the Polish economy. For a mineral deposit to be considered a 'strategic deposit', the legislator has specified that it meets two basic criteria. The first refers to the state of land use, which must allow access to the deposit. On the other hand, the second criterion is alternative, so the deposit must be of fundamental importance for the national economy or raw material interest, have an above-average volume of resources, or be characterised by unique parameters. Given the above, in the author's opinion, the selected gypsum deposits, i.e. Borków-Chwałowice, Leszcze, Uników-Galów and Winiary may meet the criteria for being recognised as strategic deposits, which entitles the minister responsible for the environment to initiate the procedure specified in Article 94 of the Geological and Mining Act.

This paper presents the results of a technical and economic analysis of the process of obtaining aggregates by mechanical excavation using hydraulic hammers, vibration rippers, Wirtgen surface miners, and ripper-dozers. The analysis involved a number of machine performance tests carried out at the “Raciszyn” Jurassic limestone deposit. The values determined in the tests included the average performance of individual devices making up the process system, unit fuel consumption and particle size distribution curves. These data served as inputs for the economic analysis of mechanical excavation and aggregate production methods. The method with the smallest unit production cost was determined. As different mechanical excavation methods affect not only the costs of obtaining aggregates, but also other non-economic values, Bellinger’s multi-criteria procedure was used to determine the optimal method. Bellinger’s multi-criteria procedure of selecting the mechanical excavation method may prove to be a useful optimisation tool, although one that requires knowledge of a given industry and its processes. Its advantage lies in relative simplicity and ease of use. This procedure should facilitate the preliminary assessment of selecting the most optimal technology and the assessment of the risk of choosing the least optimal one. The precision and, consequently, the objectivity, of the conducted analysis depends on the number and quality of the adopted criteria, which are largely connected with the knowledge level of the decision maker. On the basis of the authors’ assumptions, the most optimal mechanical excavation method at the “Raciszyn” Jurassic limestone deposit is the Wirtgen surface miner. The main advantage of this procedure is the optimal fragmentation of the excavated material and the low unit cost of aggregate production.

W artykule przedstawiono wyniki analizy techniczno-ekonomicznej procesu mechanicznego urabiania skał za pomocą młota hy - draulicznego, zrywaka wibracyjnego, kombajnu frezującego typu Wirtgen oraz spycharki z osprzętem zrywakowym. W tym celu wykonano próby eksploatacyjne tych maszyn na złożu wapieni jurajskich „Raciszyn”. Określono średnią wydajność poszczególnych maszyn, jednostkowe zużycie paliwa oraz krzywe składu ziarnowego. Dane te stanowiły dane wejściowe do analizy ekonomicznej poszczególnych sposobów mechanicznego urabiania skał dzięki czemu wskazano sposób charakteryzujący się najmniejszym jednost - kowym kosztem urabiania

The aim of the article is to present a solution to the research problem that addresses the selection of the opening cut location in the surface mining method. Selecting the opening cut location is a strategic mine planning matter and has a key impact on the overall processes occurring during mining operations. This choice is a complex, and at the same time, mathematically ill-defined issue. The selection procedure should take into account many, often opposing, perspectives of the interveners, who represent the criteria laid down by the technical and organisational, economic, as well as social and environmental groups. In order to be able to compare criteria of a different nature, the authors implemented a multi-criteria method as a solution, derived from operational research. The mathematical tool best suited to the characteristics of the issue of selecting the opening cut location is a method from the ELECTRE family, which was used to create the final solution ranking. The main achievement of the method presented is the specification of a complementary group of assessment criteria and the application of a method allowing a solution to be created, which results in the selection of the most favourable decision variant. The developed method supports decision-makers responsible for making investment decisions in the implementation of mining projects.

W artykule przedstawiono problematykę ochrony złóż kopalin oraz nowe rozwiązanie, jakim jest możliwość nadawania złożom lub ich częściom statusu złoża strategicznego. Możliwość ta została wprowadzona ustawą z dnia 16 czerwca 2023 r. o zmianie ustawy – Prawo geologiczne i górnicze oraz niektórych innych ustaw, która obowiązuje od 28 października 2023 r. Omówiono dwa główne kryteria, jakie powinno spełniać złoże kopaliny, oraz procedurę wydawania decyzji o uznaniu złoża kopaliny lub jego części za złoże strategiczne przez ministra właściwego do spraw środowiska. Przeanalizowano też skutki wydania owej decyzji, która z założenia ma zwiększyć ochronę prawną takiego złoża. Ochrona ta składa się z sześciu istotnych elementów, również opisanych w artykule.