Daw Mill headaches mount for UK Coal

UK COAL saw coal production drop by a third in the first quarter of 2012, the company revealed today.

In an interim management statement for the year from January 1, the Doncaster-based mining and property group said production to the end of March was 1.4m tonnes compared to 2.1m tonnes over the same period the previous year.

Production at Warwickshire pit Daw Mill, which is threatened with closure, was poor, which the firm blamed on the slow ramp up of 303s panel.

“We continue work to progress the safe recovery of 32s, needed to maintain production over the 2012/13 winter. Otherwise, production at the other mines has been broadly in line with expectations,” it said.

Of the 1.4m tonnes of coal, 1m tonnes was from deep mines and 400,000 from surface mines.

As previously reported, the UK returned to profit in 2011 but it has reiterated job losses at Daw Mill are likely.