U.K. Helps Doomed Hatfield Coal Mine

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - The U.K. government has approved a loan to allow the doomed Hatfield coal mine to continue operating until its scheduled closure in May next year.

The South Yorkshire coal mine will be the last underground mine in the country when it shuts next May, with the loss of 500 jobs. Owned by the employee-led Hatfield Colliery Partnership (HCPL), the £8 million ($12.1 million) loan will be used to develop a new seam and prevent the mine from going into immediate insolvency. The mine already received a £4 million ($6 million) loan in September from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to keep it running but it has not been enough.

"The government has agreed to provide a short-term commercial loan of £8 million to support the company's managed closure plan," explained Britain's Energy Minister, Matthew Hancock, in a statement. "The short-term loan will provide time for further consideration of the case for a longer term loan to allow HCPL to continue operating until 2016. We expect the loan to be paid back in full."

Brian Holland, operations director for Hatfield Colliery Partnership, commented: "Without this support from government it will not be possible to complete the mining plan, which currently sees mining ending in 2016, and we would have been announcing an immediate insolvency with approximately 500 direct job losses."

Hatfield is one of three remaining underground coal mines in the U.K.. The other two are Thoresby Colliery in Nottinghamshire and Kellingley Colliery in Yorkshire which are due to shut later this year. Troubled owner UK Coal (Doncaster, England) received a government loan of £10 million ($15.1 million) last April to allow them reach their closure date of October. Around 1,300 jobs will be lost.

These closures will mark the lowest point of the U.K.'s declining coal industry. 2013 was a particularly hard year for the coal industry. In July 2013 the largest remaining coal mining firm in the U.K. - UK Coal - entered into administration in an effort to save 2,000 jobs. Earlier that year a major fire led to the closure of Daw Mill Colliery in Warwickshire, the largest deep coal mine still operating in the U.K., with the loss of up to 650 jobs. For additional information, see August 21, 2013, article - Daw Mill Coal Mine Shutting Down.

In April 2013, one of Scotland's leading coal producers, Scottish Coal (Alloa, Clackmannanshire), went into liquidation with the loss of almost 600 jobs. The company operated six open cast coal mines in Scotland, located in East Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and Fife. For additional information, see April 23, 2013, article - Scottish Coal Collapses.

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