Metal mining market analysis in Poland
Poland mines only one metal ore on an industrial scale: the copper-silver ore of the Legnica-Głogów Copper Belt in Lower Silesia. According to the USGS, Polish mines produced 410,000 tonnes of copper in 2025, and according to the Silver Institute, Poland was the world’s 7th-largest silver producer. This brief brings together the latest data on output, resources, mines and the companies in the sector. It also covers new deposits and what the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) means for companies buying from or selling to Polish mining.
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How much metal is mined in Poland?
According to the USGS, Polish mines produced 410,000 tonnes of copper and 1,300 tonnes of silver in 2025. Both metals come from a single ore, mined only by KGHM Polska Miedź.
In 2025 KGHM mined 30.3 m tonnes of ore (dry weight) in Poland. The ore graded 1.49% copper and 50.8 g of silver per tonne on average. It was processed into concentrate containing 401,100 tonnes of copper (KGHM, 2026).
KGHM’s smelters in Głogów and Legnica produced 570,900 tonnes of electrolytic copper in 2025, 3% less than in 2024, because of maintenance at the Głogów II smelter. About 375,000 tonnes came from KGHM’s own concentrate and 196,000 tonnes from purchased materials, including scrap. KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. also produced 1,323 tonnes of metallic silver (KGHM, 2026).
KGHM recovers other metals from the same ore. In 2025 this included 594 kg of gold from its own ore (Polish Geological Institute, 2026). Poland was also the world’s 3rd-largest producer of rhenium, at about 10 tonnes (USGS, 2026).
No other metal ores are mined in Poland today. According to the Polish Geological Institute, no zinc-lead deposit holds a mining licence (as at 31 December 2025).
In the first half of 2026 KGHM’s Polish operations produced 292,000 tonnes of copper and 697 tonnes of silver (KGHM, 2026).
| Measure | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Ore mined (m t, dry weight) | 30.6 | 30.3 |
| Copper in concentrate (thousand t) | 400.1 | 401.1 |
| Electrolytic copper (thousand t) | 588.7 | 570.9 |
| Metallic silver (t) | 1,316 | 1,323 |
Why the figures differ: the USGS (410,000 t) and KGHM (401,100 t) count copper in concentrate. The Polish Geological Institute reports copper in the ore mined, before processing losses: 449,000 t in 2025. Electrolytic copper also includes material bought from other suppliers, so it exceeds mine output.
For buyers: Polish refined copper and silver come from one producer, KGHM, and about a third of its refined copper is made from purchased concentrate and scrap.
02
What metal resources does Poland have?
According to the Polish Geological Institute (PGI-NRI), Poland’s economic copper-silver ore resources stood at 3,492 m tonnes at the end of 2025, containing 55.35 m tonnes of copper and 163,580 tonnes of silver. That is 1.56% less than a year earlier.
Resources fell by 55.36 m tonnes of ore in 2025. There were two causes: mining (30.12 m tonnes) and a 30.56 m tonne cut to the Nowa Sól deposit after an addendum to its documentation was approved. Other documentation changes partly offset them (PGI-NRI, 2026).
Industrial reserves of the deposits in production, i.e. the part included in KGHM’s mining plans, were 971.77 m tonnes of ore. Deposits served by operating mines hold 41% of economic resources.
The USGS uses a different measure. It reports reserves, the part of resources that can be mined profitably at current prices and with current technology. According to the USGS, Poland has 33 m tonnes of copper reserves (9th among the countries in the USGS table) and 59,000 tonnes of silver reserves (5th). That is why PGI-NRI and USGS figures differ.
Other metals:
zinc and lead: 21 deposits with economic resources of 91.94 m tonnes of ore, containing 3.90 m tonnes of zinc and 1.46 m tonnes of lead. None holds a mining licence (PGI-NRI, as at 31 December 2025);
gold: there are no gold mines. Gold is recovered when copper ore is processed. PGI-NRI estimates prospective gold resources at 419.2–431.8 tonnes and prognostic resources at 34.3 tonnes. These are geological estimates, not documented deposits;
iron, titanium and vanadium: deposits near Suwałki (Krzemianka, Udryń) have been explored but are not mined.
| Metal | Measure | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copper | economic resources (metal in ore) | 55.35 m t | PGI-NRI |
| Copper | reserves | 33 m t | USGS |
| Silver | economic resources (metal in ore) | 163,580 t | PGI-NRI |
| Silver | reserves | 59,000 t | USGS |
| Zinc | economic resources (metal in ore) | 3.90 m t | PGI-NRI |
| Lead | economic resources (metal in ore) | 1.46 m t | PGI-NRI |
| Gold | prospective resources | 419.2–431.8 t | PGI-NRI |
03
What are the largest metal mines in Poland?
All of Poland’s operating metal ore mines belong to KGHM Polska Miedź: Lubin, Rudna and Polkowice-Sieroszowice. Together they mined 30.3 m tonnes of copper-silver ore in 2025 (KGHM, 2026).
The mines are in the Legnica-Głogów Copper Belt in Lower Silesia. The ore lies from several hundred metres to more than a kilometre below the surface.
A growing share of ore comes from the Głogów Głęboki-Przemysłowy (Deep Głogów) deposit. In Q1 2026 it supplied 24% of KGHM’s domestic production. KGHM is sinking the GG-1 and GG-2 shafts there. A 40 MW central air-cooling station is being built at GG-1, because the rock at this depth is very hot (KGHM, 2026).
According to the Silver Institute, KGHM’s Polish mines counted together (“KGHM Consolidated”) are the world’s largest silver mine. They produced 41.1 m oz, or about 1,280 tonnes, in 2025. Second place went to Peñasquito in Mexico with 28.0 m oz.
All three mines produce silver-bearing ore. Metallic silver is produced at the Głogów smelter. KGHM aims to stay among the world’s top three silver producers.
04
Who mines metals in Poland?
KGHM Polska Miedź is the only company mining metal ores in Poland. Including its mines abroad, the KGHM Group produced 710,000 tonnes of payable copper and 1,347 tonnes of silver in 2025 (KGHM, 2026).
In Poland KGHM runs the whole chain: mines, ore concentrators, smelters in Głogów and Legnica and the Cedynia wire rod plant. In 2026 it announced a strategy to 2055. It plans more than PLN 32 bn of capital spending in 2026–2030, about 80% of it in Poland (KGHM, 2026). For suppliers of machinery, mining services and energy, it is by far the largest customer in the sector.
Other companies hold rights to new deposits:
Lumina Metals (formerly Miedzi Copper), listed in Toronto and Warsaw since 2026. It is exploring the Nowa Sól, Sulmierzyce and Mozów deposits and has no mining licence yet. See section 05;
Leszno Copper, now a Lumina Metals subsidiary, which disputed the Kulów-Luboszyce area with KGHM. In November 2025 Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court dismissed its appeal, so KGHM’s licence is final (local press, 2025).
KGHM is also exploring the Bytom Odrzański, Kulów-Luboszyce and Retków areas (KGHM, 2026).
For suppliers: if you sell equipment or services to Polish mining, the buyer is in practice KGHM, and most of its 2026–2030 investment budget will be spent in Poland.
05
What new metal deposits have been found in Poland?
The largest new project is Lumina Metals’ Nowa Sól copper-silver deposit. According to a 2026 NI 43-101 report, it has 604 m tonnes of measured and indicated resources grading 1.24% copper and 38.29 g/t silver.
These 604 m tonnes of ore contain about 7.5 m tonnes of copper. The company also reports 112 m tonnes of inferred, less certain, resources (Lumina Metals, 2026). These are resources under the Canadian NI 43-101 standard, not Polish economic resources as reported by PGI-NRI.
The 2026 preliminary economic assessment (PEA) envisages two shaft complexes. In its first 10 years the mine would produce 290,000 tonnes of copper and 28 m oz (about 870 tonnes) of silver a year, over a 24-year mine life. Fluor is preparing the pre-feasibility study (PFS), due in the second half of 2027 (Lumina Metals, 2026).
Production is still a long way off. The company has no mining licence and is carrying out environmental baseline studies. It says it will not build the mine without an exemption from, or further changes to, Poland’s tax on the extraction of certain minerals. In 2026 Lumina Metals signed a letter of intent with KGHM on possible supplies of concentrate to KGHM’s smelters.
KGHM is exploring the Bytom Odrzański, Kulów-Luboszyce and Retków deposits. The Retków-Grodziszcze deposit received EU strategic project status in October 2026 (see section 06).
| Category | Ore (m t) | Copper (%) | Silver (g/t) | Copper in ore (thousand t) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Measured | 184.0 | 1.37 | 34.53 | 2,526.8 |
| Indicated | 419.9 | 1.18 | 39.93 | 4,972.1 |
| Measured + Indicated | 603.9 | 1.24 | 38.29 | 7,498.9 |
| Inferred | 111.9 | 1.08 | 28.91 | 1,206.7 |
06
How does the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) change mining in Poland?
The Critical Raw Materials Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1252) has applied since 23 May 2024 and lists copper as a strategic raw material. On 9 October 2026 the European Commission granted strategic project status to two KGHM projects.
The CRMA sets EU benchmarks for 2030. EU sources should cover 10% of annual consumption of strategic raw materials in extraction, 40% in processing and 25% in recycling. Copper and nickel are on the strategic list even though they do not meet the criticality thresholds. Silver is on neither list (JRC, 2024).
Strategic projects get faster permitting and easier access to finance. KGHM’s October 2026 projects are:
the Retków-Grodziszcze deposit: the Retków shaft and over 100 m tonnes of ore mined by 2055, containing about 1.5 m tonnes of copper and over 5,000 tonnes of silver;
the Legnica Integrated Recycling Smelter: processing scrap with 15–60% copper into about 135,000 tonnes of electrolytic copper and 250 tonnes of nickel a year.
The two projects are worth more than PLN 9.5 bn in total (KGHM via PAP, 2026).
In the second round the Commission selected 46 new projects in 16 EU countries, including Poland, from 102 applications. In the first round, in March 2025, it selected 47 projects in the EU, two of them in Poland. A new call is planned for the end of 2026 (European Commission, 2025 and 2026).
For foreign suppliers and buyers: CRMA projects in Poland will need equipment, engineering and recycling feedstock for years. Copper scrap with 15–60% copper is exactly what the new Legnica smelter is designed to take.
More on steelworks and metal processing: Metallurgical market in Poland.
MarketHub expert comment
“For a B2B company, metal mining in Poland effectively means one customer and one supplier: KGHM. New shafts at the Deep Głogów and Retków deposits and EU strategic project status mean years of demand for machinery, mining services and energy, so suppliers should work on getting onto KGHM’s approved vendor lists now. Buyers of copper and silver should bear in mind that output from Polish deposits is not growing, and that the Nowa Sól project, if it goes ahead, will not start production before the next decade.”
Author: Luiza Rach · Updated by: Łukasz Brzyski, 17 October 2026
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Source: MarketHub, “Metal mining market analysis in Poland”, markethub.pl, updated 10.2026