[13] In the geological description of the Szarlej mine by Louis-Edouard Rivot and Lejeune, two layers were identified: white and red.

[22] Calamine, zinc blende, and galena were found in numerous fractures in the dolomite, giving it a brecciated appearance.

[15] The higher quality ore (so-called stückgalmei and lead minerals) was transported to the surface in wheelbarrows by women and then piled near the road running from Bytom to Piekary Śląskie.

[46] Contaminated and clay-mixed material was directed to limestone settlers, where it was mixed with water and separated using the sedimentation process.

[47] With descent below this level, there was a problem with a very strong inflow of water, so in 1814, a low-pressure steam drainage machine was installed.

[48] The ore in carts with a load capacity of 300 kg was transported on rails to a large washing plant, established by Rudolf von Carnall,[49] located over 1,200 m away from the mining site.

This section was divided into three 400-meter parts, within which young boys working 8 hours a day pushed full and empty carts.

[52] The company Georg von Giesches Erben owned 57 kuks,[53] and parts also belonged to the Schaffgotsch family[54] and Karl Godulla.

[13] An official of the mine, Artur Miller, wrote:The business was excellent [...] Galman was in high demand, fetching a good number of thalers.

A large portion of the zinc, smelted in the Piekary foundries owned by the same owners as the mines, was loaded onto carts and transported to the Oder river, from where it went to Szczecin, and then further to Sweden, Denmark, America, and India.

[57]In 1828, due to a decline in zinc prices, the mine reduced its workforce to a quarter of its original size, and employees' wages were halved.

[58] The first high-pressure steam drainage machine was installed in the mine in 1834,[47] and the first mechanical washing plant was built in the 1840s.

On one side it is covered with dead stone gravel, while on the other side it slopes down in terraces and is covered with a throng of industriously bustling workers, whose pickaxes swing and throw cut chunks down, where horses pull wagons loaded with ore on tracks into the dark mine, from which the ore is lifted to the surface using machines via a shaft.Meanwhile, in 1856, Józef Lompa [pl] referred to Szarlej as a famous place for machinery and galman and lead mines.

[70] In the 1840s, drainage of the workings was achieved using three steam engines with a combined power of 54 horsepower,[31] pumping water from a depth of 40 m.[42] Around 1845, the mine employed approximately 500 people and extracted 26,820 tonnes (527,931 long hundredweight) of galman.

[80] Divers equipped with English breathing apparatus suits (air was supplied directly to the suit through a hose from a pump), which were preferred over the newer breathing apparatus of Auguste Denayrouze and Benoît Rouquayrol due to headaches experienced with their use, were used for work in the flooded areas.

[85] Around 1870, the richest exploited deposit of calamine was largely depleted,[16][87] with the pure zinc content in the ore dropping from 30% to about 12%,[16] similar to the situation in the Maria mine.

[96] In 1887, the Szarlej mine ceased ore extraction and instead turned to the material lying on old dumps, which caused a one-time increase in the plant's production.

[100] Borrow pits were eliminated by filling them with metallurgical waste, and the site of the mining plant was referred to by locals as Rozciep.

[102] Around 1854, the bones of a woolly mammoth,[103] Przewalski's horse,[104] and a damaged horn, probably belonging to an aurochs, were found on the Szarlej mine site.

[9][106][107] When the femur was sawed through, internal crystallization was also observed,[9][108] as well as on the surface of the cut, indicating that vivianite had formed within the bone mass.

It is possible that the shaft, dug in search of calamine, was flooded, in which case the bones would not have been several hundred years old at the time of discovery.

[109] The miners' wages were insufficient to meet basic needs,[61] but workers received part of their earnings in the form of vouchers.

[109] The working conditions are illustrated by the experiences of Polish crew members: Józef Duda requested leave to bandage a cut hand.