Just one deep coal mine will be left in Britain by the end of next year after the UK’s largest coal producer announced plans to close two of the three remaining pits.
Workers at Kellingley Colliery in Yorkshire, which employs 700 people, and Thoresby Colliery in Nottinghamshire, which employs 600 people, were told on Wednesday that both pits will close within 18 months at the latest because they are no longer financially viable.
Owner UK Coal is in talks with Government and the private sector to try to secure a bailout, understood to be worth close to £20m, to fund a so-called “managed” closure of the deep pits. If the talks fail, the pits will close imminently.
A bailout could also help save 700 jobs at UK Coal's six remaining surface coal mines through a possible sale.
The closures, announced in the 30th anniversary year of the miners strike, will leave Hatfield Colliery in Ed Miliband’s Doncaster North constituency as Britain’s last remaining deep pit. The colliery, which featured in the film Brassed Off, is run by an employee benefit trust after it too ran into problems last year