The largest factory in the town is the Miasteczko Śląskie Zinc Smelter. This metallurgical plant was originally built under license for the British company Imperial Smelting Processes of Bristol. Now a modern plant, ore processing is carried out in a continuous process, producing both zinc and lead. The complex comprises: a sintering plant, a sulphuric acid plant, a rotary furnace, and a lead refinery.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the smelter was a major source of atmospheric emissions of lead and other heavy metals in the northern part of the Katowice Voivodeship. In the early 1990s, several sections of the plant were closed, and modern abatement equipment was installed on the sections left working. This led to the net reduction of heavy metal emissions to air.
