'Revival' as mine hits capacity

An open cast mine in the Swansea Valley is due to be at full production capacity helping to provide "secure energy supplies," its owners say.

Celtic Energy will employ an extra 25 people to work at the East Pit site in Gwaun Cae Gurwen.

The company says this will lead to a £100m boost to the local economy over the next seven years.

In 2004 the Welsh Assembly Government gave the go-ahead for 2.1m tonnes of coal to be extracted over seven years.

Currently 23 staff work at the site and Celtic Energy said it had spent a total of £4m gearing up for production which includes a £1.4m hydraulic excavator.

Wayne Evans, site manager at East Pit said: "I am extremely proud to be working in an industry that is growing, providing more jobs for local people and investment in the local area.

"Many people said that coal mining in Wales would die, but we are able to provide new life for sites across South Wales, helping to provide secure energy supplies and prosperity."

Before preliminary works began last year, the site had been dormant since 2001, but the company said it was now playing its part in the "revival of the coal industry in south Wales".

Richard Walters from Celtic Energy said: "With gas supplies becoming increasingly expensive and susceptible to disruption, coal has a vital role to play in ensuring that we can keep the lights on in years to come."

Previously the site has divided local opinion with opponents claiming it would have a detrimental impact on the environment.

The company said it would make every effort to ensure any impacts on the environment or on local communities would be kept to an "absolute minimum".

It said it included transporting 50% of the coal by rail in order to reduce traffic movements and disruption to the local community.

Celtic Energy also said once the work had been completed, the site would be sensitively restored to ensure the wildlife would be able to flourish.

Celtic Energy Limited is the successor in south Wales to the former British Coal Corporation which was privatised by the UK Government in 1994.

Spoil heap mine plan causes alarm

Plans to excavate almost half a million tonnes of coal from old spoil heaps in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire have provoked protests from green groups.

ATH Resources from Doncaster has said improved extraction methods can reclaim the fuel from the old Langton Colliery site close to the M1.

But Nottinghamshire Against New Coal claimed renewable energy should always be the preferred choice.

The scheme is being considered at a Nottinghamshire County Council meeting.

Jane Bird from Nottinghamshire Against New Coal insisted the work was short-sighted.

"The burning of coal is part of climate change and effort should be put into finding alternatives, not squeezing the last scraps from every corner.

"On top of this the people living nearby, many of who are elderly, will have to put up with noise, traffic and pollution."

Dr Chris Hind, from Coal Magazine, said: "The equipment needed is relatively small by mining standards but there will be a visual impact.

"But getting the coal here saves opening another mine elsewhere, it gives a chance to reconfigure the heap into something more pleasing and coal sitting on the surface can cause pollution through water channels."

ATH Resources said it would comment following a decision by the council.

If the project is approved the plans will also need to go before Derbyshire's Regulatory Planning and Control Committee on 27 October.

Campaign to get coal pits on maps

A woman born at the height of the miners' strike is taking her fight for Yorkshire's regenerated pit towns to be recognised to the House of Commons.

Rachael Horne, 22, started the Pin the Pits campaign to get Ordnance Survey (OS) to mark regenerated coal mines in the region on its maps.

To mark the 25th anniversary since the year-long strike, Miss Horne will show MPs three short films on the campaign.

The group wants OS to use a half pit wheel to symbolise the revamped areas.

Some of the most well-known pits coal mines including, Maltby and Cortonwood in South Yorkshire were involved in the 1984 Miners' Strike.

While Riccall Colliery in Selby, North Yorkshire was one of the last pits to close in the UK.

Miss Horne, the daughter of a miner who worked at Bentley Pit in Doncaster, will be presenting the documentaries about the lives and times of former miners to generate interest from MPs.

Miss Horne said she hoped to create a cultural and historical legacy of the coal mines across the UK through her art.

The fine arts graduate said: "The sites that I believe should be marked are large regenerated sites ranging up to 80 hectares.

"It would not clutter the map, the regenerated sites are of cultural importance, they often contain a pulley wheel and sculptures as well as public artworks and memorials.

"These sites have cost millions to redevelop, this alone is something to celebrate and mark."

Musician Billy Bragg, a supporter of Pin the Pits, said: "This a brilliant campaign, made all the more special by the fact it has been initiated by a young artist who was herself born in a mining village during the Great Strike."

A spokesman for OS said it feared the request would clutter the maps.