Ariel Wojciuszkiewicz, a geologist, adjusts his helmet in a service chamber more than 1,000 meters underground at the Polkowice–Sieroszowice copper and silver mine in southwestern Poland, owned by KGHM, the metallurgical giant in the country, on March 25, 2026. Thousands of meters beneath the ground, amid suffocating heat, lies one of the keys to Poland's rumbling mining sector -- and the world economy. (Photo by Wojtek RADWANSKI / AFP)