Active exhaust ventilation shaft of Zakłady Górnicze Rudna in the Rudna Zachodnia copper mining district, Polkowice, Lower Silesia.
Shaft R-X is an exhaust ventilation shaft of Zakłady Górnicze Rudna, an operating division of KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. and one of the largest and deepest copper ore mines in the world, located north of Polkowice in Lower Silesia. R-X is situated in the Rudna Zachodnia mining district alongside shafts R-III and R-IV, forming the three-shaft complex of that western sub-area. As an exhaust shaft, R-X draws used air from the underground workings to surface.
Its role in the mine's ventilation system developed as the extraction front moved northward and older exhaust arrangements became uneconomical; R-X was the first of several shafts to take over exhaust ventilation duties previously held by shaft R-VI. Electrical equipment at R-X was confirmed in service in a 2019 mining authority incident report, supplied from the Rudna Zachodnia high-voltage substation. The shaft remains an active part of the operational KGHM mining system.
Shaft R-X is an exhaust ventilation shaft forming part of the Rudna Zachodnia extraction district of Zakłady Górnicze Rudna. Its surface location places it within a few hundred metres of shafts R-III and R-IV, and the three together constitute the shaft infrastructure of the Rudna Zachodnia sub-district.
Zakłady Górnicze Rudna was established as a mine under construction by KGHM director general's order in September 1969. Ground freezing began in 1970, shaft sinking in the Rudna Główna area commenced in 1971 to 1972, and preparatory works for the Rudna Zachodnia district ran concurrently. The mine was officially opened on 17 July 1974. The companion shaft R-III in the same district was commissioned in 1973. R-X, as part of the Rudna Zachodnia shaft complex, was constructed as part of the continuing development of the mine after its initial opening.
R-X functions as an exhaust ventilation shaft (szyb wydechowy), drawing used air from the underground workings to surface. A geocaching record drawing on mine documentation classifies R-X explicitly as wydechowy and locates it in the Rudna Zachodnia district. R-X's role in the mine's ventilation system is further clarified by a 2016 Gazeta Lubuska article concerning the decommissioning of shaft R-VI. That article records that as the active extraction front of ZG Rudna moved northward and R-VI became too remote and uneconomical to maintain in its exhaust function, the exhaust ventilation duties were progressively transferred to a succession of better-positioned shafts. R-X was the first of these successors, followed in sequence by R-V, R-VIII and R-XI, meaning R-X was already serving an exhaust ventilation role before each of the others was built or converted to that duty.
A Wyższy Urząd Górniczy report dated 26 June 2019, concerning an electrical fault at the KRZ Rudna Zachodnia high-voltage substation, confirmed that equipment at shaft R-X was energised and operational at that date, supplied from the same substation that powers R-III and R-IV. The shaft continues to form part of the active ventilation infrastructure of this major operational copper mine.