The Price of Coal

[vetran]

It's still cheaper to import coal from Australia than it is to mine it here. Over here a good seam is 3ft thick, in Aus they regard it as marginal if it is less than 3m.

Cheap coal needs big machinery to shift the volumes needed to make money on it. The deep mines in the UK just don't have the seam sizes to make it work anymore.

or go to Germany and pick it up off the floor!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garzweiler_surface_mine

[DaveB]

Coal mining needs to restart. Cheap energy to get UK business booming.

With modern health and safety, it will still be cheap. Though not as cheap as know health and safety atall which was what happened.

It's still cheaper to import coal from Australia than it is to mine it here. Over here a good seam is 3ft thick, in Aus they regard it as marginal if it is less than 3m.

Cheap coal needs big machinery to shift the volumes needed to make money on it. The deep mines in the UK just don't have the seam sizes to make it work anymore.

[SueEllen]

Coal mining needs to restart. Cheap energy to get UK business booming.

With modern health and safety, it will still be cheap. Though not as cheap as know health and safety atall which was what happened.

Yeah because going down a pit was great.

I've heard stories of how some fathers got their wayward sons who they knew where intelligent to study at school and get better paying jobs by taking them down a pit for an hour or two. Obviously it was illegal...

[BrilloPad]

It's strange in a way how people lament the end of coal mining in South Wales. The people of Aberfan might have been better off living next to Chernobyl. That only resulted in 49 immediate deaths.

Coal mining needs to restart. Cheap energy to get UK business booming.

With modern health and safety, it will still be cheap. Though not as cheap as know health and safety atall which was what happened.

[VectraMan]

It's strange in a way how people lament the end of coal mining in South Wales. The people of Aberfan might have been better off living next to Chernobyl. That only resulted in 49 immediate deaths.

[barrydidit]

Was watching a program with Huw Edwards the other day. A sorry tale alright.

Do need to go see the coal man actually to get stocked up. It's probably all Colombian now or some other tulip.

[northernladuk]

Jeez. I thought this was actually a thread about the price of coal and my kids Christmas presents were going to cost me more.

[zeitghost]

BBC News - Aberfan: The mistake that cost a village its children