Active copper mine shaft at Zakłady Górnicze Polkowice-Sieroszowice, one of the original shafts of the Polkowice mine complex established in the 1960s.
Szyb P-I is one of the shafts of the Polkowice copper mine, part of Zakłady Górnicze Polkowice-Sieroszowice, a division of KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. located west and north-west of Polkowice in Lower Silesia. Construction of the Polkowice mine began in 1962, following the 1957 discovery of the Lubin-Małomice copper ore deposit. The P-prefix shaft designation identifies it as an original shaft of the Polkowice mine, sunk in the 1960s during the mine's development phase.
A critical challenge during construction was the presence of heavily waterlogged sand and gravel strata above the ore body, which required the pioneering application of ground-freezing technology (mrożenie górotworu) in shaft sinking — a method subsequently adopted across all KGHM operations. Horizontal development in the Polkowice Główne area began in December 1966, and the mine was formally commissioned on 19 July 1968. The Polkowice mine was later merged with the Sieroszowice mine in 1996 to form Zakłady Górnicze Polkowice-Sieroszowice, which currently operates ten shafts and extracts polymetallic ore containing copper, silver, and rock salt.
The Polkowice copper mine owes its existence to the discovery of the Lubin-Małomice copper ore deposit on 23 March 1957 by a geological survey team led by Jan Wyżykowski of the Państwowy Instytut Geologiczny. Construction of the Polkowice mine began in 1962. The overburden strata above the ore body presented a major engineering challenge: heavily waterlogged layers of sand and gravel prevented conventional shaft sinking.
As a result, the mine's builders adopted the ground-freezing technique (mrożenie górotworu), in which a freezing agent circulated through boreholes around the planned shaft collar to solidify the surrounding strata before sinking commenced. This technique, novel in Polish copper mining at the time, proved so successful that it was subsequently applied to shaft construction across all KGHM's operations. The P-prefix designations used for the Polkowice mine's shafts correspond directly to the naming convention applied across the copper belt: the "P" identifies the shaft as belonging to the Polkowice complex, in the same way as "L" identifies Lubin shafts.
Szyb P-I was among the original shafts of the development programme. Horizontal development in the three principal zones of the deposit began at staggered points: the Polkowice Główne area in December 1966, the Polkowice Wschodnie area in July 1967, and the Polkowice Zachodnie area in November 1967. On 19 July 1968, the mine was formally handed over for preliminary exploitation and that date is regarded as the official founding date of the Polkowice mine.
By 31 December 1968, construction of the first phase was complete and the mine had reached 25% of its target production capacity. Full capacity of 4.5 million tonnes of ore per year was reached in 1972 and was increased to 7.5 million tonnes in 1973. In 1972 the decision was taken to construct a second mine, at Sieroszowice, adjacent to the Polkowice licence area.
The Sieroszowice mine was commissioned on 1 January 1980 and its first production shaft, SW-1 (later named "Jan Wyżykowski"), was commissioned on 4 December 1980. Until that date, all ore from the Sieroszowice mine was brought to the surface through the Polkowice and Rudna mine shaft systems. In 1996 the Polkowice mine and the Sieroszowice mine were merged to form Zakłady Górnicze Polkowice-Sieroszowice.
The combined mine operates across seven mining areas — Polkowice, Radwanice Wschód, Sieroszowice, Gaworzyce, Głogów Głęboki-Przemysłowy, Rudna, and Bądzów — and currently uses ten shafts, extracting polymetallic ore containing copper and silver as well as over 300,000 tonnes of rock salt per year from a salt deposit lying 80–100 metres above the copper ore. Shaft-level data specific to P-I — including its depth, winding function, and current role — have not been identified in the consulted sources.