The largest coal mining company, UK Coal, has been offered £36 million covering the Company's eight deep mines in the Midlands, Yorkshire, and the North East.
The Investment Scheme was substantially over-subscribed, with applications for £132 million against the £60 million available. UK Coal had applied for £79 million under the scheme.
The money was earmarked to access 106 million tonnes of reserves and safeguard nearly 4,000 deep mine jobs. Once the Selby complex closes in March next year the company’s underground mines will fall from 11 to eight.
UK Coal Chief Executive, Gordon McPhie, said, "I very much welcome the support that the Government has given the coal industry. The total amount of the award falls short of the project support we applied for, so we still need to assess the individual mine schemes to ensure their economic viability.”
“Substantial investment” from the company will flow into operations over the next two years linked to this government support, McPhie said.
In other major news related to the future of British coal, the UK Government has been considering two options to reduce sulphur emissions from coal-fired power stations.
If the government adopts a national emission reduction plan (NERP) coal producers have warned of a major impact on mines, expected to close as stations switch to lower sulphur imports.
UK Coal has been lobbying the UK Government to adopt prescribed emission limit values (ELVs) at power stations, rather than the National Plan, to ensure indigenous UK coal is not displaced by low sulphur imported coal.
The European Commission Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD) states that UK sulphur dioxide emissions must fall by 50% to below 585 thousand tonnes by 2010 to meet the EC National Emission Ceilings Directive. The bulk of this reduction will be made at existing coal-fired power stations where sulphur emissions are expected to fall by over 500 thousand tonnes from 2008 when these power stations must comply with the LCPD.
Last week the government said it was unable to reach consensus on the best choice between NERP or ELVs implementation options.
"No consensus has emerged from the responses to the consultation and there are strongly held views in favour of both implementation options. The choice between the options is also sensitive to other policies on which decisions will be taken in the next few months,” was the government response.
"The Directive requires that any national plan is submitted to the European Commission by 27 November 2003. However, we consider that further analysis is required before we can be sure which implementation approach it is in the UK interest to adopt. We are therefore submitting a national plan to the Commission at the same time as undertaking this further analysis.
“This will in effect keep either option open, we would withdraw the plan if this further analysis suggested that the emissions limit approach was to be preferred. A decision on whether to withdraw the national plan would be taken before Spring 2004," the government said.
