The Paskov Mine, the Winner of the First Quarter of 2010

STAŘÍČ – For the Paskov Mine, the output, mining and safety results meant its this year’s first inscription on the stand of the OKD Miner’s Lamp Itinerant Trophy. It means that no other pit of our district generated better results for the first quarter as regards the output, the metrage or safety. At Staříč and Chlebovice, this meant 220 thousand tons of coal, 3542 metres of drifts and ZERO serious injuries.

“We “overfulfilled“ the targets by 25 300 tons,“ Jiří Pokorný, Mining Operations Supervisor, informed, adding that their success is even more important because operations in just four coalfaces were going on.

“In particular, I must praise the team of Chief Foreman Prokop. Its overall share in the company’s output almost reached forty percents,“ Mr. Pokorný concluded. In the place of work of the team mentioned above – coalface No. 084 271 – the Continuous Improvement project came in useful, too. It allowed, inter alia, to shorten the duration of the preparation shifts, which was also reflected in the final output level.

Continuous improvement is also appreciated by the Paskov preparation operations staff that consists of twenty teams. Thirteen of them are at No. 2 at Staříč and seven at No. 3 at Chlebovice. There are fifteen in-company teams and five contractor teams. “Container handling of materials has proven to bring most benefit. I must say that we really do not have problems with regular supplies of all materials we need,“ Marek Červenka, Preparation Operations Supervisor, said. In the faces, they also exceeded the target by 380 metres.

“Right at the beginning of this year we have taken a number of measures to reduce accident frequency. We began to place greater emphasis on investigating the accidents. We began to put pressure on foremen and shift technicians to devote more time to their team members,“ Zdeněk Potenský, safety technician, concluded. In the first quarter of 2010, the results in the field of security were better than in the period between January and March 2009.

The Miner’s Lamp Itinerant Trophy has a brief history. It was an idea of the Chief Operating Officer’s Department of OKD that has been awarding it along with the Chief Financial Officer’s Department since 2008. “The objective was to increase the motivation of each internal business unit,“ Leo Bayer, Chief Operating Officer, explained. The condition is the best results of the mine in question as regards the output, safety and finance.

The Miner’s Lamp is awarded to a new winner every three months. Most often, this trophy went to the Darkov Mine – not less than five times! The Karviná Mine and the ČSM Mine were lucky enough to win it only once so far. The Paskov Mine has won it for a second time.

(Radek Lukša)