Does the Kellingley closure mean the end of coal in Britain?
Not quite. It is the end of deep-mined coal: the North Yorkshire pit is the last of the underground mines, that barely half a century ago numbered almost 1,000. Some surface mining will continue – much cheaper but arguably even more environmentally disruptive – and coal will still be imported until its use in power stations ends. The government had recently decreed that there should be no more burning of coal to generate electricity after 2025.
Why have the deep mines had to close if coal is still there?
Underground reserves were always quite expensive and difficult to extract due to the complex British geology and, increasingly, the small-scale ownership and financing of the mines. Under nationalisation, one mine could afford to wait unproductively until another seam had been started. This was no longer the case at places such as Kellingley. Meanwhile, other countries that export to the UK such as Russia and Colombia have more plentiful reserves, cheaper labour and a willingness to produce even when world coal prices are rock bottom, as now.
Surely the demise of coal mining became inevitable with global warming?
Action to counter the growing threat of climate change has increasingly been centred on curbing fossil fuel use and coal is far more polluting than rival energy sources such as gas. But the industry claims its future could have been safeguarded if the UK and other governments had supported “clean coal” projects using carbon capture and storage technology. Brian Ricketts, the secretary general of the European coal lobby group Eurocoal, said his industry had been unfairly vilified like modern-day slave traders by politicians at last week’s climate change talks in Paris.
Are we losing one of the country’s major job providers and a great legacy?
Mining is a small employer these days. It once provided jobs for more than 4% of the British workforce – but there are only a few hundred now even including those employed at open-cast facilities. Deep mining has made a huge contribution to the country’s wealth but was also dangerous and harmful to health. Many workers lost their lives over the past century in rockfalls and fires – 439 died in the UK’s worst explosion at a mine in Glamorgan, south Wales, in 1913 – while many miners have had their lives blighted by diseases associated with inhaling coal dust.
