History
Kopalnia Centrum was one of the longest-running hard coal mines in Bytom. Its history began in 1872 when construction of a coal mine commenced on the remnant fields of earlier zinc and lead ore mines, whose shallow deposits had been exhausted. The first tonne of coal reached the surface in 1878, extracted from seam 404 at a depth of 231 metres, by the Schlesische AG für Bergbau und Zinkhüttenbetrieb.
The mine initially had three shafts — numbered I and II (later named Rejtan and Skarga) sunk in 1872–1878 — and operated under the name Karsten-Centrum, the first element commemorating a senior mining and metallurgical official of importance to the Silesian zinc industry. The geological conditions in the mine were consistently difficult, with methane hazard, fire risk, and rock-burst events characterising its entire operational history. In 1935, in response to intensifying rock bursts and fires, the extraction method was changed from pillar working to longwall with roof caving, and steel arched supports replaced timber.
At the turn of the twentieth century the mine invested in deeper workings: during 1904–1914 the main shafts were deepened and modernised to reach 774 metres, opening seams 407, 410, and the particularly productive seam 510, whose thickness exceeded nine metres in places. Highly mineralised brine encountered during exploratory drilling was supplied to Bytom hospitals and bathhouses from 1934, and probably until the 1960s. After the First World War the mine found itself on the German side of the post-partition boundary.
In 1950, after post-war nationalisation, it was incorporated into the Bytomskie Zjednoczenie Przemysłu Węglowego and renamed Dymitrow, after the Bulgarian communist leader Georgi Dimitrov. In 1961 sinking began on a new shaft, designated as a peripheral ventilation and backfill-materials shaft and named Witczak. Sinking was completed in 1965 at a depth of 774.1 metres, with a sump of 31.4 metres.
A 35-metre steel headframe was erected the same year. The shaft served as an exhaust ventilation shaft, a materials and backfill shaft, and as a man-riding shaft with two-deck cages installed. In 1963, two years into the Witczak sinking programme, the decision was taken to sink a further two-compartment extraction shaft, named Budryk, opening the 930-metre level.
In 1979, under the name Dymitrow restored briefly to Centrum in 1990, the mine achieved its highest daily output of 12,747 tonnes, equivalent to approximately 4.5 million tonnes per year. In October of that year a coal dust explosion at the then-Dymitrow mine killed 33 miners on the fourth section at the 774-metre level, the worst accident in the mine's history. In 1990 the mine returned to the name Centrum by referendum of its workforce.
In 1993 it was incorporated into the Bytomska Spółka Węglowa and merged with the adjacent Kopalnia Szombierki to form Kopalnia Węgla Kamiennego Centrum-Szombierki; the Szombierki operation was wound down from January 1996. In February 2003 the undertaking became part of Kompania Węglowa. On 1 January 2005 it was merged with Zakład Górniczy Bytom III to form the two-operation Kopalnia Węgla Kamiennego Bobrek-Centrum, within which the Centrum section was designated Ruch Centrum.
Coal extraction at Ruch Centrum ended on 9 May 2015. The mine then entered formal liquidation under the Spółka Restrukturyzacji Kopalń (SRK), which was completed on 31 December 2023. Dismantling of the shaft infrastructure at Szyb Witczak began in June 2021.
Backfilling of the shaft tube with aggregate commenced in late April 2022 and took approximately five months to complete. The surviving surface structures — the 35-metre steel headframe, the engine-house and distribution-board building, the fan building, and the office-administrative building — together with the approximately three-hectare former mine site, were formally donated by SRK to the city of Bytom in August 2025. The transferred assets also included the electric winding machine and a self-propelled mine-car tippler.
The city of Bytom announced that the site would be converted into a technical depot for the Bytomski Zakład Usług Komunalnych, a municipal cleaning company created in 2025.