“Gerry has led UK Coal through a transformational change and has delivered an outstanding performance since he became chief executive in October 2004,” company chairman David Jones said.

“He has placed our mining business on a far firmer footing and, with the development of our property management team and strategy, he has also put in place a much stronger platform for future value creation.”

Spindler hasn’t had an easy ride with UK Coal, having to close several deep mines over the past few years as part of the restructuring process to try and pull UK Coal out of the red.