The final outstanding proposal for opencast coal mining in the United Kingdom has been refused, after Carmarthenshire Council rejected plans by Bryn Bach Coal Ltd to extend the Glan Lash mine near Llandybie in south Wales, citing unacceptable impacts on protected woodland, peatland and an endangered butterfly population.
The council’s head of place and sustainability, Rhodri Griffiths, said the proposals conflicted with multiple policies on biodiversity and the environment. The scheme would have adversely affected protected woodland and hedgerows and caused what he described as “the unacceptable disturbance, degradation and loss” of irreplaceable peatland. The application also raised concerns for a local population of marsh fritillary — one of the UK’s most threatened butterfly species.
Bryn Bach Coal had sought to extend the site over 10.3 hectares, promising extraction of 85,000 tonnes of coal and 11 jobs. The company had revised its application after councillors rejected an earlier version in 2023, arguing it had developed a niche non-thermal market for premium anthracite with demand from water filtration, battery production and green steelmaking industries. It has six months to appeal the decision.
The rejection means there are now no live applications for new coal mines anywhere in the UK. Coal Action Network described the decision as reflecting “a clear, strategic commitment to climate leadership, rare habitat protection, and safeguarding the health of surrounding communities,” while Friends of the Earth Cymru called it “great news” that brought to a close years of campaigning and ended Wales’ last opencast coal mine.
The Glan Lash mine opened in 2012 under a licence permitting extraction of 92,500 tonnes of coal over four and a half years before closing in 2019. The UK’s largest opencast coalmine, Ffos-y-Fran above Merthyr Tydfil, closed in 2023 after its extension application was similarly refused. Wales retains one deep mine, at Aberpergwm in Neath Port Talbot.
