MINEX Forum

Tag: coal mine

  • New coal mine’s business case ‘is dead’

    New coal mine’s business case ‘is dead’

    The business case for the UK’s first new deep coal mine for 30 years is “dead”, a Cumbrian MP has said.

    Westmorland and Lonsdale Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron said the country’s two largest steel manufacturers did not want the coking coal the mine near Whitehaven in West Cumbria would produce.

    “And I obviously think that digging coal and other fossil fuels out of the ground to burn them in a climate emergency is just stupid,” he said.

    The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has been approached for comment.

    The mine’s operator, West Cumbria Mining, has said it would extract coking coal for steelmaking in the UK and Europe.

    Most steel production involves heating coal to high temperatures and combining it with iron.

    Protesters camped on the site of a proposed coal mine in West Cumbria

    But steel manufacturers Tata and British Steel have said they plan to move to different, lower carbon, production methods.

    “[They] are now on the record as saying that they’re not in the market at all for coal from any future West Cumbrian coal mine,” Mr Farron said.

    “And that means that what we already suspected is kind of confirmed: the business case for the West Cumbria coal mine is dead.”

    Mr Farron said 100% of the coal would need to be exported to make the mine viable.

    West Cumbria Mining has been approached for comment but previously said it would “assist the steel industry migration towards the government objective of a zero net carbon emissions target by 2050”.

    ‘Level of cruelty’

    The company has permission to dig until 2049 and expects to create about 500 jobs.

    Mr Farron said these would be short term because the mine’s business case “didn’t stack up”.

    He said there was “a level of cruelty” in the government’s support for the mine, accusing it of giving false hope of jobs for political reasons.

    “Why would you flog this if it wasn’t for the fact that you think it’s good to put on your leaflets against the other parties in Workington and Whitehaven and around?” he said.

    He said the country should be investing in tidal and marine power in West Cumbria to provide long-term, well-paid, skilled jobs.

    “Britain’s got the highest tidal range on planet earth after Canada,” he said.

    “We’re using nearly none of it.

    “The West Cumbria coast – there you’ve got it. Use that tidal and marine energy, it’s there to be tapped.”

  • ‘Let nature take it back’: Svalbard is rewilding the site of a massive former coal mine

    ‘Let nature take it back’: Svalbard is rewilding the site of a massive former coal mine

    An Arctic mining site in Norway is being returned to nature in one of the country’s biggest-ever natural restoration projects.

    Svea mine, a 40-minute helicopter ride from Svalbard’s main town of Longyearbyen, produced 34 million metric tonnes of coal in its lifetime. Opened in 1917, thousands of people worked there at its peak with a canteen, airfield, power plant and workshop built on the site.

    It officially closed 100 years later and now its overgrown railway tracks lead nowhere.

    Little is left of the more than 100 buildings that once stood on the site with only the most historically important structures preserved.

    How much has restoring Svea cost?

    “We are committed to preserving as much as we can of the wilderness nature of Svalbard,” says Norway’s former environment minister Espen Barth Eide.

    “And when we have used an area for industrial activities and do not use it any longer, we think that these days we need to try to restore back to nature the area as it originally was.”

    Svea has been returned to its natural state at a cost of around 1.6 billion Norwegian kroner (€1.35 million). It is the country’s largest-ever natural restoration project.

    “The concept is to try to let nature take it back,” Hagen Johansen, head of the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage, told AFP.

    “That means to let creeks run freely. To make sure that avalanches do happen, because that will transport more sediment down and it will make new creeks.”

    The part of the Barents Sea where the Svalbard archipelago is located is warming up to seven times faster than the rest of the planet, according to a study published last year.

    Svalbard is closing its coal mines

    The Arctic archipelago is slowly ridding itself of its involvement in the fossil fuel industry. Seven more mines in the hills of Longyearbyen have all but closed with the last due to shut in 2025.

    The town also disconnected its coal power station earlier this month in preparation for a transition to renewables.

    Svalbard’s economy is hoping to rely on tourism and scientific research instead.

    While some support the change, others are more sceptical about the region turning a page on its mining past.

    “How green is Norway? Well, it’s nowhere near as green as it thinks it is,” Andrew Hodson, a glaciologist based in Svalbard told AFP.

    “It’s selling climate, well it’s selling oil to the rest of the world while running oil platforms on renewable energies. It’s laughable.”

    Is there still coal mining in Svalbard?

    Barentsburg, a Russian mining community with just under 500 Russians and Ukrainians, most of them from the Donbas region, will soon be the only place where coal is mined on the archipelago.

    An international treaty that recognises Norway’s sovereignty over Svalbard means all signatories are entitled to equally exploit the region’s resources.

    Some observers – and Russia itself – say strict environmental protections introduced in the region are at least partly aimed at limiting this. About two-thirds of Svalbard’s land is protected in one way or another.

    It’s impossible to know whether such considerations played into Oslo’s decision to restore the Svea mine at great cost, Mats Kirkebirkeland of Norwegian think tank Civita tells AFP.

    “But there’s no denying that some of the Norwegian environmental policies and the geostrategic policies on Svalbard are aligned.”

  • Flooded and forgotten: How Europe’s disused coal mines are successfully being used to heat our homes

    Flooded and forgotten: How Europe’s disused coal mines are successfully being used to heat our homes

    An old coal mine has been providing an English town with green energy for the last six months.

    The ground-breaking project in Gateshead is using the warm water that has filled the tunnels to heat hundreds of homes and businesses in the former coalfield community.

    Hailed a success, the UK’s first large-scale network shows the huge potential to be found in the nation’s sprawling warren of old mining tunnels, which sit beneath roughly a quarter of homes.

    “What we have in Gateshead is a legacy from the days of the coal mines, which was dirty energy,” says John McElroy, cabinet member for the environment and transport at Gateshead Council. “Now we are leading the way in generating clean, green energy from those mines.”

    Following decades of disuse, Britain’s coal mines have gradually flooded. Warmed by the earth, this liquid offers one answer to our renewable energy needs.

    With an estimated 2 billion cubic metres of warm water – more than a quarter of the volume of Loch Ness – geologists believe that Britain’s mine shafts hold one of the biggest underused sources of clean energy.

    “Recovering heat from mine water below the ground within abandoned coal mines provides an exciting opportunity to generate a low carbon, secure supply of heat, benefitting people living or working in buildings on the coalfields,” says Gareth Farr, head of heat and by-product innovation at the Coal Authority.

    The authority owns and manages the disused coal-mining infrastructure on behalf of the UK government.

    “With many millions of people living upon abandoned coalfields in Great Britain, the potential for mine water heat could be significant.”

    Tapping into the heat from water in the mines has the added benefit of boosting the economies of some of the communities most badly hit by deep coal mining closures in the 1980s. So how does it work exactly, and where is it taking off?

    How can flooded mines help to heat homes?

    Mine water gets warmer the deeper it goes, as this interactive map of old coal mines from the UK Coal Authority shows. Temperatures typically range from 10 to 20C but can reach up to 45C at depths of 1km – such as the Yorkshire site.

    Left to mix with the subterranean rock, the water often contains toxic compounds. But as a thermal source it is a valuable resource that can be harnessed through drilling boreholes which bring it to the surface.

    The water is then directed through heat pumps and extractors which compress the liquid, raising it to a much higher temperature before distributing it through heating networks.

    Once its heat has been absorbed in surrounding buildings, the water can be poured back into the mine system where it will be warmed up again.

    Mine water heat also has the advantage of working all year round. Temperatures aren’t affected by the seasons, and the water can be used to cool homes as well as heat them.

    Which UK towns are tapping into the energy source?

    Once at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, north-east England is now leading the way on this alternative energy source.

    Gateshead Council’s mine water project launched in March 2023 and is now one of the largest in Europe. With government funding, it installed 5km of new heat network pipes, boreholes and a heat pump energy centre capable of producing 6 mega-watts of mine water heat.

    This now provides secure, low-carbon heating to 350 high rise homes, a college, art gallery, several office buildings and a large manufacturing site.

    The Coal Authority and partners have been researching the potential for recovering low-carbon heat from disused coal mining infrastructure for several years.

    The UK Geoenergy Observatory (UKGEOS) based in Glasgow and run by the British Geological Survey, is one of the key research stations for this exploratory field.

    After the busy mines of the Scottish city and nearby town of Rutherglen shut, natural floods filled them with water of about 12C. In summer 2021, a dozen boreholes drilled into the site and fitted with hundreds of sensors provided a clearer image of the network of flooded tunnels. They revealed how fast water flows among mines, how warm it is, how quickly it replenishes and reheats.

    “The data from these 12 boreholes in Glasgow will help scientists around the world understand the subsurface and geothermal energy better,” said UKGEOS’s Alan MacDonald.

    The Glasgow Observatory and another project in Cheshire are part of a £31 million (€37 million) investment by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The funds being devoted to this research show the increasing interest the government is taking in this striking form of geothermal energy.

    The European pioneers of geothermal energy

    By tapping into its history to create new geo-energy assets, the UK is following in the footsteps of other European countries.

    The world’s first mine water power station opened in the Dutch city of Heerlen in 2008. It is now connected to around 500 houses and commercial facilities – cutting the area’s carbon emissions from heating by almost two thirds.

    A similar project is underway in the rugged Asturias region of northern Spain, where flooded coal shafts are heating (and cooling) a hospital, university and numerous other buildings.

    “Geothermal energy has given a second life to our coal mines,” Asturias’s director of energy María Belarmina Díaz Aguado told the BBC.

    Countries repurposing their underground reserves are also looking further north, to Iceland, a pioneer of geothermal energy.

    But though the first mine water power station is on European ground, the technology was harnessed nearly two decades earlier in Springhill, Nova Scotia.

    Synonymous with mining disasters, the Canadian community started using the heat from its dormant coal mines in 1989. One packaging firm in the town now boasts a 100 per cent renewable system, all year round.

  • Coal Stockpiles Accumulate for “Shubarkol Komyr”

    Coal Stockpiles Accumulate for “Shubarkol Komyr”

    Regrettably, the actual shipment facilitated by the esteemed operator “Kazakhstan Temir Zholy” (KTZ) network accounted for a mere 53.7% of the planned volume, as reported by the reputable “Kursiv” magazine.

    The astute management of the coal company has astutely observed that KTZ has failed to uphold its agreements with the producer. Specifically, KTZ has underestimated the provision of wagons for transporting raw materials abroad and has consistently imposed arbitrary restrictions on the railway transportation of coal.

    Initially, “Shubarkol Komyr” had set forth plans to export 1,929.2 thousand tons of coal, with the railway operator agreeing to transport 1,590.6 thousand tons. However, over the course of eight months, a mere 1,032.8 thousand tons of solid fuel were successfully dispatched for sale. Notably, Poland emerged as the primary importer of coal, with deliveries in this direction experiencing an astonishing increase of 7.95 times, amounting to 1,021.6 thousand tons.

    As a consequence of the disruptions in raw material exports, the company was compelled to curtail its coal production. During the aforementioned eight-month period, “Shubarkol Komyr” was able to yield 1,075 thousand tons of coal, a mere half in comparison to the corresponding period in 2022. For the current year, the company’s targeted production stands at 2 million tons of fuel, representing a significant 33% decrease year-on-year.

    In order to circumvent penalties arising from non-compliance with licensing and contractual obligations pertaining to mineral extraction, the diligent producer has already approached the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development. They have dutifully presented evidence confirming that the railway operator has provided fewer wagons for the transportation of raw materials than is required by the coal company.

  • Immersive coal mine experience set to terrify visitors this Halloween

    Immersive coal mine experience set to terrify visitors this Halloween

    An immersive event set in an eerie coal mine will terrify visitors at Zip World this spooky season with the return of the Monsters of the Mine experience.

    Not just any old scare-fest; the horde of underworld monsters and the petrifying, unique adventures in the dark make this an event visitors won’t forget in a hurry

    Set in a former coal mine, visitors will be scared stiff by the monsters prowling the area with the event predicted to be one of the most terrifying experiences in south Wales this Halloween.

  • Bishkek Mayor’s Office initiates ban on sale and burning of Kara-Keche coal

    Bishkek Mayor’s Office initiates ban on sale and burning of Kara-Keche coal

    Bishkek Mayor’s Office initiated a ban on sale and burning of coal from the Kara-Keche coal field in 4 districts of the capital, Kyrgyz coal state enterprise reported.

    Coal from Shabyrkul coal is sold at fuel depots of the city at 6,000 soms for a ton.

    The decision may be changed since Kazakhstan imposes restrictions on export of coal, the Kyrgyz coal state enterprise stated.

  • Court suspends case against Poland’s Turów coal mine

    Court suspends case against Poland’s Turów coal mine

    The decision, which allows the mine to continue operating for the time being, was welcomed by the Polish government. However, the environmental groups that brought the case have expressed disappointment that the proceedings will drag on further.

    It marks the latest twist in a long-running legal battle over the mine, which has also drawn in Poland’s neighbours, the Czech Republic and Germany, whose borders are close to Turów.

    The provincial administrative court in Warsaw had yesterday been due to rule on the environmental decision that granted Turów, an open pit brown coal mine that feeds a nearby power station, a concession to operate until 2044.

    Instead, the court suspended the case because parallel proceedings before the General Directorate for Environmental Protection (GDOŚ) regarding an application from the mine’s owner – state-owned energy firm PGE – to amend the environmental decision have not been concluded.

    The judge noted that PGE recently withdrew its bid to amend the environmental decision, which led GDOŚ to discontinue proceedings. However, she stressed that, until the discontinuation becomes final and binding, the administrative court cannot rule on the legality of the permit.

    This development was welcomed by government figures, who argue that the mine and power plant in Turów are essential for Poland’s energy security.

    “The fight for Turow continues,” wrote climate minister Anna Moskwa. State assets minister Jacek Sasin called it “a key decision for Poland’s energy security”, adding that “the functioning of the mine is not threatened and the mining concession is valid until 2044”.

    Even before the ruling was issued, Moskwa had insisted that the mine would remain open whatever happened. “Obviously, regardless of this ruling and decision – because we have different experiences – Turow will not be closed. We will defend energy security,” she told Polskie Radio.

    A lawyer from one of the environmental groups that has challenged the legality of the environmental decision, Agnieszka Stupkiewicz of Frank Bold, admitted that the court had no choice but to suspend proceedings.

    However, she criticised the “scandalous” behaviour GDOŚ, saying that the agency had not kept parties in the case nor the administrative court informed of PGE’s decision to withdraw its bid to amend the environmental decision.

    Her group and other climate organisations from Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany brought their case against the environmental decision last year, arguing that there were a number of shortcomings in how it was reached, including a failure to take account of the mine’s impact on the climate.

    In July, the provincial administrative court in Warsaw ordered the environmental permit to be provisionally suspended ahead of a final ruling, finding that there is a risk of significant environmental damage.

    That decision was, however, later overturned by the Supreme Administrative Court. It meant that the mine was allowed to continue functioning until a final ruling on the environmental decision is issued by the Warsaw court.

    Meanwhile, yesterday’s decision by the court to suspend proceedings was welcomed PGE’s CEO, Wojciech Dąbrowski, who said that “Turów mine and power plant will remain one of Poland’s most important sources of energy for at least 20 years”.

    “From the very beginning, we have not recognised the legitimacy of any allegations made against the environmental decision on the Turów mine,” he added.

    His comments come just a day after PGE presented a new strategy to become carbon neutral by 2040, including abandoning the use of coal by 2030. That will be achieved in part by a government plan to transfer energy firm’s coal assets to a single, separate entity.

     

     

  • Dive deep for Istria’s latest tourist attraction: Raša mine

    Dive deep for Istria’s latest tourist attraction: Raša mine

    After a year and a half of intensive renovation, the former coal mine at Raša in eastern Istria has been reopened, repurposed as a tourist attraction. The local municipality has invested €870,000 into this authentic mining museum, 1.5 kilometres of accessible tunnel that welcomed its first visitors this July.

    Along with the museum, a miner’s lodging was also built, an authentic evocation of the miner’s everyday life, both inside and outside the mine.

    The Kova Experience tour lasts 2.5 hours and shows every aspect of the miner’s hard and dangerous work. Currently tours are only given in Croatian, with English-friendly ones available through Arsiana (Croatian-only) or email info@arsiana.hr.

    This tourist project, in addition to reviving the history and industrial heritage of Raša, highlights the importance of mining activity in the area, which dates back to the Venetians. After World War I, and Italy taking power in Istria, in 1935 Mussolini approved a loan of five million lire to construct the Raša settlement from scratch. The entire town was built in just 547 days and is an architectural and industrial curiosity in its own right. From 1928 to 1966, more than 10,000 miners worked here.

    Paula Bosančić

  • One dead, five hurt after tremor in Polish coal mine

    One dead, five hurt after tremor in Polish coal mine

    One worker was killed and five others injured after a tremor hit a Polish coal mine on Saturday morning, authorities said.
    The Bielszowice coal mine is operated by the state-owned Polish Mining Group (PGG) in the country’s southern Silesia region.Photo: PAP/Zbigniew Meissner

    The tremor at the Bielszowice mine in the town of Ruda Śląska in Poland’s southern Silesia region occurred some 1,000 metres underground at around 6:30 a.m., public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.

    The injured miners were taken to nearby hospitals; one in serious condition was flown by helicopter for treatment in the southern city of Katowice, state news agency PAP reported.

    Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki sent his sympathies to the family of the victim and wishes of a quick recovery to the injured.

  • Senedd committee seeks answers from Welsh Government on mining at Ffos-y-Fran

    Senedd committee seeks answers from Welsh Government on mining at Ffos-y-Fran

    Siân Williams

    Concerns are mounting that coal is still being extracted from Ffos-y-Fran, the UK’s largest opencast coal mine and that the company operating the mine could eventually “walk away” without restoring the site.

    The Senedd’s Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee have sent a letter to the Welsh Government’s Minister for Climate Change Julie James seeking answers about the situation at the mine in Merthyr Tydfil.

    Despite the expiration of its planning permission in September 2022, mining has continued, with almost 200,000 tonnes of coal subsequently extracted.

    Ffos-y-Fran’s owners were refused a planning application to extend operations until March 2024.,  by Merthyr Council in April.

    In May, the local authority issued mine operators Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd with an enforcement notice, which they are appealing, and which could take 12 months or more to resolve according to Committee Chair Llyr Gruffydd MS.

    In his letter to Climate Change Minister Julie James MS, Mr Gruffydd points out that the current situation ‘raises significant questions about the environmental impact of the mine, the effectiveness of the legal and regulatory framework, and the effect on the local community’.

    He says that the Welsh Government: “must clarify its position to maintain public trust, and must ensure its actions align with its commitments to addressing climate change and protecting the environment.”

    Outrageous

    Wales Green Party leader Anthony Slaughter told Nation.Cymru he welcomed the letter which which has been sent to the Welsh Government, adding: “It’s outrageous that the mine is still operating when it should have stopped in September.

    “What’s confusing to us is that Merthyr Council could have issued a breach of conditions notice and that can’t be appealed.

    “In the last few days, we have written to the council to ask why that didn’t happen and we’re now waiting for an answer.”

    The Wales Green Party has also been liaising with Coal Action Network and the Good Law Project who have sent a legal letter to Merthyr Council and to the Welsh Government calling for a stop notice to be issued by 1 August at the latest.

    Mr Slaughter said he attended the Merthyr Council meeting last May when councillors refused the extension of the planning application to continue to extract coal at Ffos-y-Fran.

    “Each and every councillor stood up and had to have their say about how we cannot carry on mining, we’re in a climate emergency, although this has been going on under their nose for several months.

    “The local residents have been fighting this for years and it was so good to be there with them when finally, it looked like they’d managed to stop them. Then over the next few weeks it unfolds and they just carry on mining and they could (do so) for another year.

    “The Welsh Government have to step up here – you can’t go around declaring climate emergencies and bragging about the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act (without) using the powers you’ve got to stop this from happening.”

    Environmental impact

    MSs on the committee have also expressed concerns that the mine’s operators might continue to extract coal – possibly for another 12 months – while they appeal against the enforcement notice.

    Mr Slaughter said: “The news couldn’t be starker in recent weeks about the climate emergency at the moment. We’re seeing southern Europe on fire and we’re seeing flooding everywhere and yet this is allowed to continue (at Ffos-y-Fran).”

    Questions have also been raised about the cost of restoring the land at Ffos-y-Fran, estimated at between £75m and £125m.

    It has been reported that the mining company has put aside only £15 million for the work.

    Mr Gruffydd has asked what steps can be taken by the government to ensure the mining company pays the full restoration costs.

    Mr Slaughter agrees that this is “a big worry” and said: “We need really strict enforcement about the restoration of the site once the mining stops. The company haven’t fulfilled their legal obligations, they didn’t put aside the money they promised for restoration. There’s a great fear in the community that once it eventually stops, and hopefully that is in August, they probably will just walk away.

    “The Welsh Government have created a mess and that site is there and needs to be restored. Coal is part of Wales’s past and it has no place in its future.”

    Nation.Cymru has contacted Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd for a response.