Last mine gone

[ruston]

Yes , even then they were doing that to a degree , I'm not sure of the full technology , but to be honest it just was not wanted.
We went out of business, the mines and opencast run down, opencast up here here complimented deep mine coal with it's high quality to blend. We put a lot of coastal land back to a higher quality than it was before, made it suitable to farm , where it was not before . Made environmental sanctuaries out of wasteland , and drained land that was bogs, employed over 1000 people on one site
Then hero to zero, all on the dole at the whim of a certain PM.

 

[Barrie Patrick]

If their is No Market for coal how come we are buying it from Germany and Columbia as well as Russia?

Its probably cheaper to dig it out in Columbia because the miners, some apparently are little more than children, are not paid as much as ours, they're probably not as well trained as ours and they probably don't spend much profit on Health & Safety. Russia is probably not much different but once out the ground it has to be transported here which surely then has to make it cost more than our own mined coal at its point of use?

As for Germany they probably have some EU subsidy, that UK doesn't get or ignore a rule the UK doesn't break that makes their product cheaper.

During the Coal Miners strike in the 1980's I heard Arthur Scargill give a speech on how foreign coal was subsidised which made it appear it was cheaper than coal we mined here.

 

[ruston]

If their is No Market for coal how come we are buying it from Germany and Columbia as well as Russia?

Its probably cheaper to dig it out in Columbia because the miners, some apparently are little more than children, are not paid as much as ours, they're probably not as well trained as ours and they probably don't spend much profit on Health & Safety. Russia is probably not much different but once out the ground it has to be transported here which surely then has to make it cost more than our own mined coal at its point of use?

As for Germany they probably have some EU subsidy, that UK doesn't get or ignore a rule the UK doesn't break that makes their product cheaper.

During the Coal Miners strike in the 1980's I heard Arthur Scargill give a speech on how foreign coal was subsidised which made it appear it was cheaper than coal we mined here.

l can't highlight your comment on columbia,but suffice to say we had 'mines and quarries act' that made H&S look like mothercare.
We could produce a million tons a year on our site standing on our head,that was all we were allowed to do over our contractual tonnage We produced unwittingly a mountain to to overstock the underground miners to their demise. The game was subterfuge

 

[Midwest]

With today's technology a new coal fired plant could be a very clean source of power, but sadly not very trendy.

Be interested to know what happens to all the gases produced by burning coal?

 

[Octopus]

How can it be nearly 45% more expensive to mine your coal locally in the UK than have it shipped half way around the planet? Surely that has to be the question?

When Steel was being discussed, the Chinese workers get about £8 per week, whilst our workers need more than that for 1 hour!

Gordon Brown used to go on about "importing deflation" - but the way I see it is that the less we produce the long term problems will get bigger. Couple this to the drive to close down all the coal power stations..... whilst the Chinese keep openign new ones..........

 

[Marvo]

I think manufacturing is more important than the resources themselves. Far more profit is made and stronger economies built by turning the resources into something that's saleable than by trading in the actual resources themselves. Take many African countries for example, they're very resource rich and always have been but as countries they're economically poor.

 

[Richard Burns]

Be interested to know what happens to all the gases produced by burning coal?

Gases produced from burning coal are primarily oxides of carbon, sulphur and nitrogen in an effectively acidic medium, the heat breaks things down to basic compounds and elements, these can reform into dioxins and acids as the temperature drops so the gases tend to be quenched rapidly in water to avoid dioxin formation, the solids (dust and non soluble compounds) are removed from the water, the gas that is now cool can then be scrubbed (in high surface area "washers") to remove nitrogen compounds and neutralise the gases, residual dust can be filtered out either electrostatically or physically and the gas can also be cleaned by passing over absorbents that again neutralise and also trap dioxins and any remaining dust. The gases are now generally cleaner than city local air quality and can be discharged to atmosphere (via gas analysers to check for any remaining contaminants), normally at high temperature to remove any steam plume and to allow the gas to rise rapidly and disperse widely.

 

[Midwest]

Be interested to know what happens to all the gases produced by burning coal?

I only asked, because I read this; Can Coal Ever Be Clean?

 

[Richard Burns]

Carbon dioxide is not removed from the gas stream except minorly by water absorption.

 

[shanky887614]

End of an era, it costs us £43 quid to make and we can buy it for £30 quid, so we have decided to close the mine, and we have decided to buy from abroad where it is cheaper, is it sensible? is price the only reason and is jobs and creating our own coal more important than feeding the Russians? thoughts lads.

yes but if we mine it in this country at least 15 will be reinvested in our eco system so yes its more expensive but its better for us in the long run.