Oldest colliery set for closure
12 April 2012
UK Coal is to halt production at its Prince of Wales mine in Yorkshire, Northern England, bringing an end to Britain's oldest colliery. The firm said it could no longer invest in the colliery due to geological problems in the mining area. It will close from September.
It added that it would offer the 500 workers at the site jobs at other Yorkshire collieries, or redundancy payments of up to £27,000. UK Coal would take a non-cash writedown of £15m in its 2001 results.
The mine, with a history dating back to 1860, produces about 1.5m tonnes of coal a year, mainly for power stations. The group's total annual output is more than 20m tonnes.
