The Jan Wyżykowski shaft, main ore-hoisting and personnel shaft of ZG Polkowice-Sieroszowice, serving the Sieroszowice copper-silver mining area.
Szyb SW-1, named Jan Wyżykowski, is the principal production shaft of the Sieroszowice mining area within the ZG Polkowice-Sieroszowice complex operated by KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. in Lower Silesia, Poland. Construction of the Kopalnia Sieroszowice was decided in 1972, sinking of SW-1 began on 25 May 1979, and the shaft was commissioned on 4 December 1980. It is equipped with both a skip compartment for ore hoisting and a cage compartment for personnel and materials transport.
The shaft headframe is a prominent landmark visible from national road No. 3 connecting Lubin and Zielona Góra. Following the 1996 merger of the Polkowice and Sieroszowice mines, SW-1 continued as the leading operational shaft of the Sieroszowice sector. The shaft is named in honour of Jan Wyżykowski, the geologist whose 1957 exploration drilling near Sieroszowice first confirmed the presence of exploitable copper ore and led directly to the establishment of KGHM and the entire Legnica-Głogów Copper District.
The copper deposit in the Sieroszowice area of Lower Silesia was discovered on 23 March 1957, when drilling led by geologist Jan Wyżykowski confirmed the presence of chalcocite — the principal copper sulphide — at a depth of 655.9 to 658.7 metres in borehole S-1. This discovery, the largest geological find in Poland's history, provided the foundation for the Lubin-Głogów Copper District and for the organisation later known as KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. In 1959 the full extent of the Lubin-Sieroszowice deposit was officially documented. The decision to build the Kopalnia Sieroszowice was taken in 1972.
Construction began thereafter, and the mine was formally opened for exploitation on 1 January 1980. However, because szyb SW-1 had not yet been commissioned at that date, all ore raised from the new mine was transported to the surface via the existing shafts of the neighbouring Kopalnia Rudna and Kopalnia Polkowice. Sinking of SW-1 began on 25 May 1979, and after construction the shaft was handed over for service on 4 December 1980.
From this point the Sieroszowice mine was able to operate its own ore-hoisting infrastructure. The shaft is equipped with both a skip compartment for the hoisting of ore and a cage compartment for the transport of personnel and materials underground. The headframe of SW-1 is a prominent structure visible at a considerable distance from national road No. 3 linking Lubin with Zielona Góra, and has become a recognisable landmark of the mining landscape.
The mine works the Sieroszowice area copper-silver deposit, in which the ore contains approximately 65 g of silver per tonne alongside copper, hosted in Zechstein copper-bearing shales. Rock salt layers are also present above the copper deposit at approximately 850 metres depth, and the mine extracts over 300,000 tonnes of rock salt annually. Underground temperatures in the working areas exceed 40 degrees Celsius, and the interconnected tunnel system of the Polkowice-Sieroszowice mine reaches the Rudna and Lubin mines, making it theoretically possible to travel underground between the three operations.
On 1 January 1996 the Kopalnia Sieroszowice was merged with the Kopalnia Polkowice to form the Zakłady Górnicze Polkowice-Sieroszowice, and SW-1 continued in service as the principal production shaft of the Sieroszowice sector. Engineering works on both the skip compartment and the cage compartment of SW-1 have been undertaken as part of ongoing operational maintenance. On 21 August 2004, the first trials of mechanical ore extraction using an ARM 1100 roadheader took place in the Polkowice-Sieroszowice mine — the first application of mechanical extraction technology in the entire Legnica-Głogów Copper District.
The shaft was formally named Jan Wyżykowski in honour of the geologist whose exploration work in 1957 led to the discovery of the copper deposit on which the mine was founded. Wyżykowski's name is also commemorated at a primary school in Polkowice and at the Jan Wyżykowski University established there in 2016.