Active intake ventilation and personnel shaft of Zakłady Górnicze Rudna, distinguished by the only surface climate control station in the Legnica-Głogów Copper District.
Shaft R-IX is an intake ventilation and personnel shaft forming part of the Rudna Zachodnia district of Zakłady Górnicze Rudna, an operating division of KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. north of Polkowice, Lower Silesia. Described in 2003 as the newest and most modern shaft in the entire KGHM system, R-IX received the main workforce transferred from the older shaft R-III in August 2003 when extraction in the R-III sector was largely exhausted. Between 2003 and 2005, PeBeKa built a surface central climate control station beside R-IX — the only such installation in the Legnica-Głogów Copper District — which chills water to supply the underground cooling system.
In November 2019, a 1:10 scale model of the R-IX headframe was erected on a roundabout in the centre of Polkowice as a symbol of the town's mining heritage. The shaft remains an active operational installation.
Shaft R-IX is an intake ventilation shaft (szyb wdechowy) and personnel and materials shaft of Zakłady Górnicze Rudna, located in the Rudna Zachodnia extraction district. Its coordinates place it approximately 1.7 kilometres north-north-east of the older Rudna Zachodnia shaft cluster of R-III, R-IV and R-X, consistent with its role serving the northward extension of mine workings.
Zakłady Górnicze Rudna was established as a mine under construction in September 1969. The mine was officially opened on 17 July 1974 and grew rapidly, with output reaching 11.3 million tonnes of ore per year by 1983. As extraction expanded northward, new shaft infrastructure was required to serve the advancing production areas. R-IX was built as the newest shaft in the KGHM system, and by the time of its commissioning it was described as the most modern shaft of its type in KGHM.
In August 2003, the main workforce that had previously begun its shifts at shaft R-III — then serving the largely exhausted western extraction area — transferred to R-IX. The reason was that the ore deposit in the R-III sector had been approximately 95 per cent worked out and the active production faces had moved too far from R-III to be served efficiently from it. The transfer to the newer and better-positioned R-IX allowed this workforce to continue operations in accessible parts of the deposit.
Between 2003 and 2005, PeBeKa constructed the surface central climate control station (Powierzchniowa Centralna Stacja Klimatyzacyjna) beside shaft R-IX, on behalf of KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. The station was the only installation of its type in the Legnica-Głogów Copper District. Built in a steel structural frame, its principal function is to chill water to +1.5°C and supply it to the underground cooling distribution system. Cooling towers for the refrigeration units and free-cooling towers were also constructed as part of the installation.
In November 2019, the Municipality of Polkowice and Zakłady Górnicze Rudna jointly erected a scale model of the R-IX headframe on a roundabout at the intersection of Dąbrowskiego, Mała, Ogrodowa and Legnicka streets in the centre of Polkowice. The model is a 1:10 representation of the actual shaft's winding tower, standing six metres high and illuminated. It was described as a tangible symbol of the town's restored mining identity and recognition of its mining tradition.
Shaft R-IX continues as an active element of the ZG Rudna operational system.