UK Coal Seeks Opencast Coal Mine in England

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - The biggest coal producer in the U.K., UK Coal (Doncaster, England), has announced that it will soon apply for permission to excavate 450,000 tons of coal from Bignall End in Staffordshire, England.

The struggling coal producer said it will lodge an application with Staffordshire County Council to operate an opencast mine at the site in north Staffordshire for up to two and half years. Research by the local university maintains much of the region contains large reserves of coal, up to 35 individual streams, some up to three meters thick.

U.K. Coal said that it intends to mine on a 200-acre site and claimed that it will be carried out with environmental concerns to the forefront. Protesters to the plan claimed it is too close to residential areas. UK Coal currently operates three deep mines in England and employs around 2,500 people.

Last December, U.K. Coal completed a 'make or break' restructuring process to try and save the company, starting with a name change to Coalfield Resources plc.

Jonson Cox, Chairman, said: "This has been a restructuring of unprecedented scale and complexity for this size of company, dealing with a legacy structure that was inherited on the privatisation of British Coal in 1994. Without it, it was almost certain that the coal mines would have been unable to trade beyond the first quarter of 2013."

The company will have to introduce more streamlining and boost productivity though in order to ensure the company's survival during the coming decade.

"The support provided has given a final chance to the mining business, mine management and the workforce, to adopt the changes needed to ensure safe, reliable and efficient production for the next 5 -10 years," Cox added. "While we have successfully reduced deep-mine manpower costs by 12.5 per cent, and started to change working practices, our inherited cost structure still remains too high and labour productivity too low".

In 2010 the U.K. produced 18.4 million tons of coal, and imported 26.5 million tons, according to UK Coal. Coal usage has jumped considerably in Europe during the past year, particularly in the U.K. and Germany, thanks to cheap coal imports from the U.S. and high European gas prices.

Recent figures from the U.K government's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) saw coal account for 35.4% of the electricity generated in the country during the third quarter of 2012, up almost 50% on the same period in 2011. It was coal's strongest Q3 in 14 years. At the same time gas usage fell to its lowest point in 14 years, thanks to high prices. For additional information, see January 8, 2013, article - Coal Dominates U.K. Energy Mix in Q3.

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