There is a monument of an outstanding Pole in Lubin. However, it is not a monument to a politician, a military man or an artist. It is a monument to an engineer and a discoverer. Well, not only, because he went different ways before, he studied in a seminary, learned philosophy, music, took part in a September campaign, was taken captive, escaped from captivity, in a word, had different adventures. But he got the monument for his discoveries. What he discovered is Polish copper. The largest copper deposits in Europe and one of the largest in the world.
Jan Wyżykowski, the engineer, as he is referred to here, created the basis for what currently functions as a large enterprise, precisely called Polska Miedź. It is no longer a local company, in Poland, now it operates as an international concern for which 100 thousand people work in various countries. International, but Polish.
We are usually used to Polish companies becoming the property of foreign capital. This is the opposite case: it is Polish capital that has become the owner of foreign companies. KGHM Polska Miedź S.A., for that is how the company is called, gained its capital from Polish copper, but it did not stop at copper mining and, as if by the way, it became the world's largest producer of refined silver, and it also produces many other precious metals, including gold.
In other words, KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. produces money, not paper money, not electronic money, not fiat money, but real money, real, tangible money, as it used to be: from gold, silver or... copper.
One can easily imagine that there are many people in the world willing to take over such a producer. Will it be possible to protect Polish Copper from being taken over by... others? Because if it fails, Mr. Wyżykowski, the engineer, wherever he is, would probably get very upset. And not only him...
(Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator)