✦ Deep Glogow and the Refrigerated AirNarrow moat

KGHM Polska Miedź (KGH) — the future bets

Building refrigeration underground, to keep reaching ore that has already been counted.

The least glamorous item in the capital programme is the one that determines whether KGHM is still mining in 2040.

Parent capital expenditure by area, H1 2026 (zl m)Mining1 251Metallurgy174Borrowing costs126Leases74Other38KGHM H1 2026 Management Board report, table 15; total 1 663m zł, +10%
Three-quarters of the parent's capital spending goes underground, most of it to keep reaching ore already counted.

The Deposit Access Program in the Deep Glogow area involves building shafts, central air-conditioning stations, and access and development tunnels, alongside outfitting new mining areas with conveyor belts and replacing mining machinery1. The deposit runs to about 1 500 metres2 and the GG-1 shaft already reaches 1 3483.

The air-conditioning is the detail worth pausing on. Below about 1 200 metres the rock is hot enough that ventilation alone will not make a working face survivable, so the air has to be chilled underground before people can be sent into it. KGHM is building refrigeration plants as mining infrastructure.

This is what a forty-to-fifty-year reserve life actually costs. The ore is there and it is good ore; reaching it requires continuous capital that produces no additional tonnes, only continued access to the tonnes already counted.

Forecast group capital expenditure of more than 32 billion złoty over 2026-2030, about 6,5 billion a year4, is dominated by work of this kind.

The measure is production from own concentrate against capital spent. If access capital rises while own-concentrate output stays near the 183,6 thousand tonnes of the first half of 20265, the programme is buying continuity rather than growth — which may be all it was ever meant to buy.

Moat trajectory: Holding steady

The access programme continues at a steady pace and buys continuity rather than growth - it is what keeps the forty-year reserve reachable.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Mining capital expenditure, first half
1 251m zł of 1 663m zł in H1 2026, +10,4%

Deep Glogow and the cooling it needs are mining spending; this line rising faster than output is the cost of going deeper.

Source: KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. Group - Management Board's report on activities in the first half of 2026 ↗
References
  1. ReportedThe Deposit Access Program in the Deep Glogow area involves building shafts, central air-conditioning stations, and access and development tunnels, alongside outfitting new mining areas with conveyor belts and replacing mining machinery.
    KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. Group - Management Board's report on activities in the first half of 2026, the Strategy of the KGHM Group 2055+ approved on 3 July 2026 and its targets (payable copper production above 730 thousand tonnes a year of which about 590 thousand from Polish assets including 180 thousand from scrap, adjusted EBITDA averaging 12 billion złoty at a 25,6% margin, capital expenditure above 32 billion złoty across 2026-2030, at least 220 MW of installed renewable capacity, the Sierra Gorda fourth grinding line at 725 million dollars raising output about 20% while shortening the life of mine by three years, the Deep Glogow Deposit Access Program, and shareholders including the State Treasury at 31,79%) — 2026-2030 and beyond · publ. August 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedThe deposit runs to about 1 500 metres and the GG-1 shaft already reaches 1 348.
    KGHM press office - the GG-1 shaft at Kwielice, at 1 348 metres the deepest mining pit in Poland, connecting the Polkowice-Sieroszowice and Rudna mines — 2023 · publ. 30 June 2023 · source ↗
  3. ReportedThe deposit runs to about 1 500 metres and the GG-1 shaft already reaches 1 348.
    KGHM press office - the GG-1 shaft at Kwielice, at 1 348 metres the deepest mining pit in Poland, connecting the Polkowice-Sieroszowice and Rudna mines — 2023 · publ. 30 June 2023 · source ↗
  4. ReportedForecast group capital expenditure of more than 32 billion złoty over 2026-2030, about 6,5 billion a year, is dominated by work of this kind.
    KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. Group - Management Board's report on activities in the first half of 2026, the Strategy of the KGHM Group 2055+ approved on 3 July 2026 and its targets (payable copper production above 730 thousand tonnes a year of which about 590 thousand from Polish assets including 180 thousand from scrap, adjusted EBITDA averaging 12 billion złoty at a 25,6% margin, capital expenditure above 32 billion złoty across 2026-2030, at least 220 MW of installed renewable capacity, the Sierra Gorda fourth grinding line at 725 million dollars raising output about 20% while shortening the life of mine by three years, the Deep Glogow Deposit Access Program, and shareholders including the State Treasury at 31,79%) — 2026-2030 and beyond · publ. August 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedIf access capital rises while own-concentrate output stays near the 183,6 thousand tonnes of the first half of 2026, the programme is buying continuity rather than growth — which may be all it was ever meant to buy.
    KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. Group - Management Board's report on activities in the first half of 2026, production, unit costs and employment (electrolytic copper of 291,5 thousand tonnes of which 183,6 thousand from own concentrate, metallic silver of 696,7 tonnes, the pre-precious-metals-credit unit cost of 52 201 złoty a tonne against a total unit cost of 17,415, C1 of 2,44 USD/lb, average group employment of 34 543 including 18 870 at the parent, and payable copper from the international assets of 59,5 thousand tonnes of which Sierra Gorda 40,2 and Robinson 17,7) — H1 2026 · publ. August 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 24, 2026