Mining Skills ‘Running Out’

A company aiming to open five coal mines in South Wales has warned the region could soon run out of skilled miners.

Rising world energy prices are re-awakening interest in the Welsh coal industry but experts say the last 20 years of inactivity have hit the once-proud skills base.

A spokesman for Kenfig-based Horizon Mining said: ‘Who would have thought, 15 years ago even, that there would be a shortage of mining skills in South Wales early in the 21st Century?’

Horizon Mining plans to open five mines in the region including one in the Vale of Neath that is expected to start producing coals within weeks.

The spokesman was unwilling to say where the mines would be, or whether any would be deep mines – accessed via vertical shafts rather than tunnels driven into hillsides.

However, the four mines did not include the proposed Margam super pit, currently the subject of a judicial review requested by Horizon Mining.

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