The burning of brown coal, or lignite, at the Adamów power plant in Turek has left a scar of ash covering the landscape. Nearby is the mine that supplies the plant. This site is one of five major locations of brown-coal mining and electricity production in Poland.



(Image: Kacper Kowalski)

Extraction and burning of lignite at Konin, some 30 kilometres from Turek, has left a multi-coloured pattern on the landscape.



(Image: Kacper Kowalski) Advertisement

This discharge, resembling a huge expanse of furry mould, comes from the Zakłady Chemiczne chemical plant in Police, near Szczecin. The plant is a major producer of titanium dioxide and nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers.



(Image: Kacper Kowalski)

Massive machines move stocks of sulphur at the state-owned Siarkopol depot near Gdansk. Sulphur is one of Poland's major natural resources, and large quantities are shipped through Gdansk and other ports.



(Image: Kacper Kowalski)

Poland is one of the largest users of coal in Europe, and this massive machine in Gdansk shifts it in bulk. The country's large deposits, particularly in the Silesian reserves in the south, make coal one of its main foreign income earners, mainly through exports to elsewhere in Europe and to the former Soviet Union.



(Image: Kacper Kowalski)

This dump of phosphogypsum, a radioactive by-product of processing phosphate ore into fertiliser, is no longer being worked and is being covered with soil to remediate the site.



(Image: Kacper Kowalski)