Active shaft of the Polkowice-Sieroszowice copper mine complex, serving ventilation and drainage functions within the Sieroszowice operating section.
Szyb SG-2 is a ventilation shaft forming part of Zakłady Górnicze Polkowice-Sieroszowice, operated by KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. in Lower Silesia, Poland. It belongs to the Sieroszowice section of the mine and is sited in close proximity to the earlier Szyb SG-1, the two shafts lying approximately 130 metres apart near Polkowice. Szyb SG-2 was constructed in the early 1990s by PeBeKa and was notably equipped with a cascade drainage system during its sinking — an anti-flooding measure that at the time of the GG-1 shaft construction in the 2010s was cited as the most recent comparable installation in the Zagłębie Miedziowe, built more than twenty years previously.
References to SG-2 in technical literature connect it to ventilation infrastructure serving the deeper Sieroszowice working areas, including systems designed to channel exhaust air through the salt formation above the copper ore deposit. The shaft remains part of the active mine complex.
Szyb SG-2 is one of the shafts belonging to the Sieroszowice section of Zakłady Górnicze Polkowice-Sieroszowice. The mine was established in 1996 by the merger of two formerly independent operations: Kopalnia Polkowice, which had been in production since 1968, and Kopalnia Sieroszowice, which commenced operation on 1 January 1980. The underlying Lubin-Sieroszowice copper deposit had been identified by drilling near Sieroszowice in March 1957 and formally documented in 1959.
The construction of Szyb SG-2 by PeBeKa took place in the early 1990s, making it a later addition to the Sieroszowice shaft system than SG-1, which had been sunk between 1979 and 1990. During the sinking of SG-2, a cascade drainage system was installed to protect the shaft from water ingress — a technically demanding measure reflecting the highly waterlogged geological conditions in this part of the Legnicko-Głogowski Okręg Miedziowy. This system was subsequently referenced in 2013 during the sinking of the much deeper GG-1 shaft, when engineers noted that the last comparable cascade drainage installation in the copper district had been built at SG-2 more than twenty years earlier.
Szyb SG-2 has a ventilation function within the mine. Technical documentation from the mid-2010s identifies the shaft as part of infrastructure intended to route exhausted, heated air from underground copper ore workings through the overlying salt deposit layer and out via SG-2 — a ventilation strategy designed to improve air quality and thermal conditions in the deeper sections of the Sieroszowice operating area. The shaft lies close to the Szyb SG-1 surface complex, with the two installations approximately 130 metres apart in the Polkowice district.
Zakłady Górnicze Polkowice-Sieroszowice exploits polymetallic ore containing copper and silver from four principal mining areas by room-and-pillar methods with roof deflection, producing approximately 12 million tonnes of ore per year. Szyb SG-2 continues to serve the active mine as part of its ventilation and drainage infrastructure.