Coal makes a comeback in UK

Coal mining is making a comeback in the United Kingdom as the quest for secure energy supplies chips away at environmental objections and record high prices for the raw material make pits economically viable.

For the first time since the 1984 miners' strike that broke the colliery unions, saw coal imports surge and mines close, pits are reopening and miners are being recruited.

"Coal has never gone away, but with the price having more than doubled in the past year and clean coal technologies coming along, it is making something of a comeback," said John Delaney of the Coal Authority, the official monitoring body.

"It has a major role to play in the medium term in meeting energy needs here and around the world."

He said two mothballed deep mines reopened recently, two more were under review and a third working mine was recruiting experienced staff to develop a new seam.

"Reopening a fully closed deep mine is much more difficult and expensive - like starting a new one - but there has been lots of interest in opening smaller, surface mines in England, Wales and Scotland," Delaney said.

The UK burns some 60 million tons of coal each year, of which 17 million tons is locally produced, providing 35 percent of the country's power in 2007.

UK Coal is the biggest of about a dozen producers in Britain. Its output was 8.1 million tons last year, accounting for some 7 percent of the country's energy needs.

David Brewer of Coalpro, the mine operators' organization, said he calculated the country had economically recoverable coal reserves of about one billion tons and after years of decline money was now coming into the industry.

"We can now look forward to a stable future with output perhaps rising to 20 million tons a year against prospects for a continued decline just a couple of years ago. Demand is there and now the price is too," he said.

Experts tend to agree that, with estimated global reserves for 300 years, coal is not going to go away because it is relatively cheap to extract, to burn and readily available despite the dilemma that it is also the most polluting fuel.

The UK reaffirmed last week that coal would play a vital role in the country's new energy mix despite the apparent conflict with its pledge to slash climate changing carbon emissions by at least 60 percent by mid-century.

Agencies

(China Daily 03/20/2008 page17)