That is how it was...
It all began in 1947. Although two years had already passed since the end of World War II and Poland’s borders had long since been established, it was only then that the Polish administration actually began taking over the economy from the Soviet Army’s military authorities.
The land being taken over was deserted and devastated by war, plunder and ordinary human thoughtlessness. Awareness of the need to develop its great treasure—mineral resources—was also slowly growing.
The first formal move by the new Polish administration was to establish, at the beginning of 1947, the Central Board of the Mineral Industry in Wrocław.
Mrs Anna Skalicka became head of the Board. In the middle of the year, enterprises were established in larger cities to rebuild mines and resume the extraction of mineral resources necessary for the rapidly developing economy. The names of the enterprises were standardized. First came the name of the locality in adjectival form, followed by the invariably repeated words: “Mineral Resources Mines”.
Thus, the Wrocław Mineral Resources Mines, Strzeblów Mineral Resources Mines, Jelenia Góra Mineral Resources Mines and, among others, the Bolesławiec Mineral Resources Mines were established. Many of these names survived for half a century. Ours in Bolesławiec did not.
The Bolesławiec Mineral Resources Mines resurrected numerous mines, small workings and mere extraction pits in the clay-resource deposits surrounding Bolesławiec from the ruins of war. They were given melodious names, usually female ones: “Barbara”, “Janina”, “Anna” (that was Anna Skalicka), and “Maria”; Piast male names were not forgotten either. The “Bolko” mine, like a brave prince, reigned over the entire “harem”; it was the largest and most important mine.
It survived into modern times, closing as the last one and going, in glory, into a well-deserved retirement. The names were picturesque; the reality of the mines was extremely bleak. The former hosts, renowned for their high civilization and technical culture, had evidently attached little importance to “clay mining”.
The pioneers drained and rebuilt old workings designed exclusively for manual extraction with a pickaxe and shovel, equipped with rail mine carts pushed by human muscle. Sometimes a good old mining horse represented the pinnacle of mechanization and modernity, providing a little relief in the miners’ work. It soon also became clear that the “new people’s government” had greater worries than modernizing outdated clay-resource mines. The resources, nevertheless, were good and badly needed. The only thing that mattered was to chop more and push faster, following Pstrowski’s example, all for the sake of a bright future. And the future, in
that is how it is...
time, appeared in increasingly dark colors. The best-quality sections of the deposits were quickly exhausted; more and more waste rock had to be removed to extract the thinning layers of pure clay, and high waste heaps rapidly accumulated around the mines. After fewer than 10 years, around 1956, the situation of the Bolesławiec Mineral Resources Mines had clearly reached a critical state.
The poor technical condition of the mines and backward extraction systems were joined by two Polish scourges: bureaucracy and reorganization. The Central Board was soon moved from Wrocław to Warsaw, and the resources were then parceled out among ministries and industrial associations multiplying at an alarming rate.
The Bolesławiec Mineral Resources Mines, popularly known as BKSM, found themselves under the Ministry of... construction (?), and there within the newly established Ceramic Industry Association. Apparently, noble clay resources, sanitary ware, ceramic goods and porcelain were confused with brick (!) so necessary for the “rebuilding of Warsaw”. Such details attracted no one’s attention at the time, but they had a very clear impact on the worsening situation of the Bolesławiec clay-resource basin.
The year 1956 brought the first thaw and a somewhat more sober view by the authorities of the issue of valuable ceramic raw materials. In 1956, the then Minister of Construction also made the (historic) decision to “... launch domestic kaolin production...”.
Today, this decision can be judged, without much error, to have been 10 years late. At the time, it was a “momentous step” determining the further development of the Polish ceramic industry (!) Geologists set to work. Their first task was to identify areas where kaolin deposits occurred in Poland. After two years, it was already known that there were several such areas and that two of them were competitive: the Bolesławiec area and the Świdnica area. In typically Polish fashion, “the nation became divided”.
When one person wanted to do something in Bolesławiec, another argued that it would be better near Świdnica, and vice versa.
Ultimately, the two largest and highest-quality deposits in the country were documented: Maria III in the Nowogrodziec area and Kalno–Andrzej in the Świdnica area.
The gigantomania of those years prevailed. The Maria III deposit proved to be the largest in Poland and one of the largest in Europe. What an excellent foundation for propaganda!
Of course, no one in the country knew how to make kaolin from mined raw material. “Wide-ranging scientific work” was therefore undertaken. It did not occur to anyone to draw on the many years of experience of renowned European and global companies. Those times had not yet come. Germany from the so-called German Democratic Republic did provide real assistance, however. We drew our first models from the experienced Kemmlitz (today Amberger Kaolin Werke). The late Dr Heinz Bautze, a mineral-processing specialist with profound knowledge and enormous experience, helped us create the first kaolin-production technology.
In the spring of 1963, the first department of the Ceramic Raw Materials Processing Plant began operating. Regardless of how these times are judged, this was an important and groundbreaking moment. The focus of managing clay resources in Poland shifted from extraction “at any cost” toward processing by mechanized methods.
Along with the launch of the first department, the design and construction of another began. The second department entered production in 1973. In 1970, BKSM was merged with the kaolin-production plant, creating a new multi-plant enterprise called “Surmin Mineral Resources Mining and Processing Works”.
The enterprise was also part of the newly established “Vitrocermin” combine and, together with the Association of the Glass and Ceramic Industry in Kielce and the Ministry of Construction, formed the first rung of the monstrous administrative ladder of the Gierek era in the 1970s.
Work also began, in great haste, on designing another kaolin plant with a gigantic annual capacity of 200,000 tonnes. The giant was never built, but its design broke through the “Iron Curtain”. “Surmin” employees saw European kaolin plants. Disappointment, awareness of the technological delay and the crisis of the second half of the 1970s arrived simultaneously.
The 1980s were years of stagnation and survival. For purely administrative reasons, the enterprise underwent another “cosmetic” name change, becoming Mineral Resources Mines Surmin, and then, in the era of privatization after 1989, as part of the enterprises of the 15th National Investment Fund “Hetman” S.A., adopting its present name: Surmin-Kaolin Mineral Resources Mines Joint-Stock Company.
Privatization under the Universal Privatization Program was not purely administrative. Small, primitive or exhausted mines were closed, and a separate enterprise was spun off from the remaining operations. The employees of “Surmin-Kaolin” S.A. received the statutory 15% of the company’s shares.
The company’s organization is undergoing dynamic systemic changes. The former production of two grades of kaolin has been expanded to 12 grades with specialized properties. Intensive investment and production modernization are under way, and the ISO 9002 quality system is being implemented. In good business condition, the company is entering the second half-century of its history.