The national power industry is based primarily on its own energy mineral resources such as hard and brown coal. Approximately 80% of electrical energy production from these minerals gives us complete energy independence and the cost of its production from coal is the lowest in comparison to other...

Green hydrogen production is expected to play a major role in the context of the shift towards sustainable energy stipulated in the Fit for 55 package. Green hydrogen and its derivatives have the capacity to act as effective energy storage vectors, while fuel cell-powered vehicles will foster net-zero emission mobility. This study evaluates the potential of green hydrogen production in Power-to-Gas (P2G) systems operated in former mining sites where sand and gravel aggregate has been extracted from lakes and rivers under wet conditions (below the water table). The potential of hydrogen production was assessed for the selected administrative unit in Poland, the West Pomerania province. Attention is given to the legal and organisational aspects of operating mining companies to identify the sites suitable for the installation of floating photovoltaic facilities by 2050. The method relies on the use of GIS tools, which utilise geospatial data to identify potential sites for investments. Basing on the geospatial model and considering technical and organisational constraints, the schedule was developed, showing the potential availability of the site over time. Knowing the surface area of the water reservoir, the installed power of the floating photovoltaic plant, and the production capacity of the power generation facility and electrolysers, the capacity of hydrogen production in the P2G system can be evaluated. It appears that by 2050 it should be feasible to produce green fuel in the P2G system to support a fleet of city buses for two of the largest urban agglomerations in the West Pomerania province. Simulations revealed that with a water coverage ratio increase and the planned growth of green hydrogen generation, it should be feasible to produce fuel for net-zero emission urban mobility systems to power 200 buses by 2030, 550 buses by 2040, and 900 buses by 2050 (for the bus models Maxi (40 seats) and Mega (60 seats)). The results of the research can significantly contribute to the development of projects focused on the production of green hydrogen in a decentralised system. The disclosure of potential and available locations over time can be compared with competitive solutions in terms of spatial planning, environmental and societal impact, and the economics of the undertaking.

In the mining industry, accessing the locations and observing processes for educational purposes can be problematic due to safety reasons or high cost of experiencing it in person. Immersive technologies, especially applied in an accessible and responsive design such as WebXR, have great potential to make such educational and training applications easy to access and effective for a wide audience. In this work-in-progress paper, we present the design process, the detailed production pipeline and the challenges we have met during the implementation of the WebXR interactive environment based on the 360 video of the mining technologies pipeline captured at the open pit mine.

The construction of a surface mine always involves the necessity of accessing deposits through the removal of the residual overburden above. In the beginning phase of exploitation, the masses of overburden are located outside the perimeters of the excavation site, on the external dump, until the moment of internal dumping. In the case of lignite surface mines, these dumps can cover a ground surface of several dozen to a few thousand hectares. This results from a high concentration of lignite extraction, counted in millions of Mg per year, and the relatively large depth of its residual deposits. Determining the best place for the location of an external dump requires a detailed analysis of existing options, followed by a choice of the most favorable one. This article, using the case study of an open-cast lignite mine, presents the selection method for an external dump location based on graph theory and the A-star algorithm. This algorithm, based on the spatial distribution of individual intersections on the graph, seeks specified graph states, continually expanding them with additional elementary fields until the required surface area for the external dump - defined by the lowest value of the occupied site - is achieved. To do this, it is necessary to accurately identify the factors affecting the choice of dump location. On such a basis, it is then possible to specify the target function, which reflects the individual costs of dump construction on a given site. This is discussed further in chapter 3. The area of potential dump location has been divided into elementary fields, each represented by a corresponding geometrical locus. Ascribed to this locus, in addition to its geodesic coordinates, are the appropriate attributes reflecting the degree of development of its elementary field. These tasks can be carried out automatically thanks to the integration of the method with the system of geospatial data management for the given area. The collection of loci, together with geodesic coordinates, constitutes the points on the graph used during exploration. This is done using the A-star algorithm, which uses a heuristic function, allowing it to identify the optimal solution; therefore, the collection of elementary fields, which occupy the potential construction area of a dump, characterized by the lowest value representing the cost of occupation and dumping of overburden in the area. The precision of the boundary, generated by the algorithm, is dependent on the established size of the elementary field, and should be refined each time by the designer of the surface mine. This article presents the application of the above method of dump location using the example of “Tomisławice,” a lignite surface mine owned by PAK KWB Konin S. A. The method made it possible to identify the most favorable dump location on the northeast side of the initial pit, within 2 kilometers of its surrounding area (discussed further in chapter 3). This method is universal in nature and, after certain modifications, can be implemented for other surface mines as well.

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.