Coal mining is one of the most important sectors of the Polish industry. It can be said that the coal is a national raw material. This results in Poland being a pioneer in the European Union in terms of coal mining as well as its use in the production of electricity and heat. There are many companies in Poland which have been established and developed around the coal mining industry aimed at coal extracting. The operations of those companies depends on the condition of the mining companies and their cooperation with them: commercial, service and advisory, called referred to as “mining supporting companies”. The article focuses on the results of a survey carried out in mining supporting companies, such as mining machinery and equipment manufacturers, mining-related service companies and mining-related research and development institutions. The authors evaluated the relationship and dependence of those companies on the mining industry. It was assumed that the measure of the mining supporting companies condition is the overall quantity of public related payments contributed to the state budget and local budgets. In the article, the authors raised the problem of the size of losses for public finances, as a result of the significant limitations of financial flows from the mining companies. The surveyed companies are those associated with the Polish Mining Chamber of Industry and Commerce. As a result, the authors prepared conclusions regarding the dependence of the mining supporting companies on the situation of the mining subsector.

Caving in the excavation of mining galleries is a dangerous phenomenon, resulting in a threat to the health and life of humans, technological difficulties (transport, ventilation, etc.) and economic losses. Mining galleries list: design errors, runtime errors, errors and random causes among the causes of the caving occurring in recent periods in the excavation of underground coal mines. Examples in the recent period of caving in the excavation of mining galleries in coal mines indicated that one of the main causes of the situation was the loss of capacity and double timber technical wear caused by the corrosion of the profile. In practice, the caving that occur as a result of the technical wear can be divided into the breaking arc of a roof – bar, the loss of stability of one of the heading walls and a total heading collapse. On the basis of the carried out analysis of these cases, guidelines were proposed for improving the safe operation of the workings. The improvement of support stability may be achieved by applying additional supports, stabilizing the structure by bolting the support sets or by introducing a fiber-reinforced concrete coating with injection into the rock mass. Examples of caving occurring in the excavation, for which the preparatory selection of support does not match the geological-mining conditions, were also presented. The summary indicated the importance of diagnostics roadway in the safe and efficient conduct of mining that should be covered by the operational rules, and their scope and frequency should be adapted to the rank of the occurrence of hazard and support construction.