1435 workings and the management and discharge of saline mine waters. These processes must be sustained for many years following the termination of extraction activities to ensure hydrogeological stability and to protect adjacent areas from flooding and groundwater rebound. Consequently, despite the progressive decline in production, the mine continues to incur considerable operational expenditures and exerts ongoing pressure on the aquatic environment. This situation underscores the need for integrated transition strategies that comprehensively address both the economic and environmental dimensions of the phase-out process and the post-mining stage. Such strategies should incorporate long-term environmental management obligations, financial sustainability, and the identification of alternative functions that enable the productive use of existing infrastructure and resources in a manner consistent with sustainable development objectives. The currently dominant approach to mine closure focuses primarily on technical decommissioning and the mitigation of negative environmental impacts. Within this framework, post-mining infrastructure is generally perceived as a financial liability requiring sustained public support. In practice, this results in longterm expenditures associated with drainage, land reclamation, and environmental monitoring, without generating durable economic value or new development opportunities for local communities. In the context of the energy transition and the concept of a just transition for mining regions, a fundamental question arises as to whether existing mines in the decommissioning phase can be utilized more efficiently and responsibly. A key challenge is the transformation of the Brzeszcze Mine from a facility generating long-term environmental costs into an infrastructure asset capable of reducing environmental pressures, creating sustainable economic value, and strengthening public trust in the transition process. Addressing this challenge requires a shift from an approach based solely on decommissioning and compensating for the impacts of past mining activities toward models that integrate environmental management, new energy-related functions, and the strategic use of existing technical infrastructure and workforce competencies. The problem defined in this manner constitutes the point of departure for proposing a practical and scalable model for the transformation of mining facilities, which may also be applied to other sites facing similar structural and environmental constraints. 2. OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE The primary objective of this paper is to develop and present a transformation model for the Brzeszcze Mine, serving as a reference case for converting a decommissioned hard coal mine into an infrastructure asset that performs environmental and energy-related functions. The proposed approach emphasizes the practical integration of existing mining infrastructure with new technological processes aimed at reducing environmental pressures while generating economic value in the post-mining phase. The scope of the study is intentionally limited to a single facility, allowing for an in-depth technical and functional analysis of the proposed model. The paper does not attempt to provide a comprehensive assessment of Poland’s energy transition; rather, it uses the Brzeszcze Mine as a representative case study through which the scalability and transferability of the proposed solutions may be evaluated. From a systemic perspective, the transformation model is structured around four interrelated functional modules: (1) mine water management (purification and desalination), (2) integration with renewable energy sources (photovoltaic systems), (3) recovery of mineral resources from technological processes, (4) methane capture and management. The first module involves the development of a conceptual mine water management system based on advanced purification and desalination technologies adapted to the technical conditions of the Brzeszcze Mine. The model assumes an average mine water inflow of approximately 8,000–12,000 m³/day,
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