Last of Durham coal mines faces closure

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

WEARMOUTH, the last pit in the Durham coalfield, has been proposed for closure by British Coal. The demise of the mine, with its workforce of 670, marks the end of an era for the region that once had 304 pits, employing 165,000 men.

Wearmouth, in Sunderland, is the latest of seven mines, together employing around 3,700 men, to be proposed for closure in recent weeks. Almost all are among those 'reprieved' following the publication earlier this year of the Government's White Paper on the future of the coal industry.

Production at another reprieved mine, Rufford near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, will end on Friday as a result of a vote by employees earlier this year to end mining once the current face is exhausted. Assuming the proposed closures go ahead, British Coal's mining workforce will be about 15,000 compared with more than 40,000 in October 1992 when the crisis facing the coal industry became clear.

Since then market conditions have deteriorated further, with nuclear power and natural gas accounting for a larger than expected proportion of electricity generation - the largest market for coal.

Eddy Hindmarsh, British Coal's head of operations, told workers at Wearmouth: 'The simple but sad truth is that there is just no market for the coal mined at Wearmouth.' The mine is stocking 218,000 tons of unsold coal, worth pounds 7m at power station prices. Nationwide, British Coal now has 17 million tons of stockpiled coal while the generators, National Power and PowerGen, have about 32 million.

British Coal's contracts with National Power and PowerGen dropped to 40 million tons this financial year from 65 million a year ago, and will fall by a further 10 million next April.

Both generators have made it clear that there is little scope for extra coal sales. This raises a question mark over the future of the three remaining 'reprieved' mines - Prince of Wales in Yorkshire, Point of Ayr in North Wales and Bilsthorpe in Nottinghamshire.

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