Sixty Years and Twenty-Three Million TonnesNarrow moat

KGHM Polska Miedź (KGH) — moat facet

More ore remains than has already been taken, which also means the accessible tonnes went first.

The best evidence that this deposit is durable is that it has already been mined for sixty years and is not close to finished.

Sixty years of mining, in four numbersOutput extractedmore than 1,5 billion tonnesCopper produced23 million tonnesOre remaining1 858 259 thousand tonnesDeepest shaft today1 348 metresStated life remaining40-50 yearsWhat remains is larger than what has been taken
Every geological surprise this deposit had, it has already had - which is worth a great deal and says nothing about price.

Over that period KGHM has extracted more than one and a half billion tonnes of output and produced 23 million tonnes of copper1. What remains — 1 858 259 thousand tonnes of ore2 — is larger than what has been taken. Few industrial assets anywhere can show a record like that and still describe the second half as the bigger one.

The record also carries a warning that mining companies rarely put in writing, which is that the easy tonnes go first. Sixty years of production works outward and downward from the most accessible ore, which is why the mines are now at 1 348 metres3 and why the cash cost has risen in each of the last five years4.

There is a second reading, and it is the more useful one for an owner. A deposit worked continuously since the 1960s has had every geological surprise it is going to have. The orebody is mapped, the grades are known, the metallurgy is settled, and the operating risk that attends a new mine in a new country simply is not present here. What KGHM has is the least uncertain large copper asset in the world, attached to the least certain price.

The number that tests it is grade. If the copper content of ore processed falls materially below the roughly 1,6% the resource statement implies5, the sixty-year record stops being a guide to the next twenty.

Moat trajectory: Narrowing

A deposit worked for sixty years is sixty years shallower in its best parts. Output fell from 592,4 thousand tonnes in 2023 to 570,9 in 2025 while capital spending rose.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Silver in concentrate from the Polish mines, first half
695,5 t in H1 2026, +5,4%

Sixty years of output is history; the half-year yield from the same ore bodies is what shows whether the deposit is still delivering.

Source: KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. Group - Management Board's report on activities in the first half of 2026 ↗
⚠ Threats to the moat
⚠ THREAT 01
The Best Ore Was Mined First
More money, the same copper: own-concentrate output rose 0,6% on a plan spending 6,5bn złoty a year.
References
  1. ReportedOver that period KGHM has extracted more than one and a half billion tonnes of output and produced 23 million tonnes of copper.
    KGHM Polska Miedz - mining and enrichment (geological resources at 31 December 2025 of 1 858 259 thousand tonnes of ore containing 30 387 thousand tonnes of copper and 91 837 tonnes of silver; a deposit dipping from a few hundred metres to 1 500; the statement that current deposits will suffice for the next 40-50 years of mining activities; concentrator output of about two million tonnes of concentrate at 23% copper a year; and more than one and a half billion tonnes of output and 23 million tonnes of copper produced over sixty years) — 2025 · publ. 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedWhat remains — 1 858 259 thousand tonnes of ore — is larger than what has been taken.
    KGHM Polska Miedz - mining and enrichment (geological resources at 31 December 2025 of 1 858 259 thousand tonnes of ore containing 30 387 thousand tonnes of copper and 91 837 tonnes of silver; a deposit dipping from a few hundred metres to 1 500; the statement that current deposits will suffice for the next 40-50 years of mining activities; concentrator output of about two million tonnes of concentrate at 23% copper a year; and more than one and a half billion tonnes of output and 23 million tonnes of copper produced over sixty years) — 2025 · publ. 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedSixty years of production works outward and downward from the most accessible ore, which is why the mines are now at 1 348 metres and why the cash cost has risen in each of the last five years.
    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. ReportedSixty years of production works outward and downward from the most accessible ore, which is why the mines are now at 1 348 metres and why the cash cost has risen in each of the last five years.
    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 ↗
  5. Moat Explorer calcIf the copper content of ore processed falls materially below the roughly 1,6% the resource statement implies, the sixty-year record stops being a guide to the next twenty.
    Moat Explorer calculation - arithmetic on figures KGHM reports: ore grade (30 387 thousand tonnes of copper over 1 858 259 thousand tonnes of ore, and 91 837 tonnes of silver over the same), the by-product credit (52 201 less 17 415 złoty a tonne), the European share of parent sales (about 17 147m of 21 927m), copper and silver as a share of parent revenue (22 378m and 6 133m of 30 964m), the minerals extraction tax against parent net profit (4 693m over 1 946m), the dividend against trailing earnings (1,50 against 43,44 a share), and own concentrate as a share of refined output (183,6 of 291,5 thousand tonnes) — FY2023-H1 2026 · publ. September 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 24, 2026