A COMPANY aiming to open five coal mines in South Wales warned yesterday that the region could soon run out of skilled miners and colliery technicians.
The Welsh coal industry is reawakening because rising world energy prices have made fossil fuels far more valuable than they were when pits were written off as uneconomic in the 1980s and 1990s.
But the intervening years have taken their toll on the once-proud skills base.
While some of the old mines can be reopened relatively easily, South Wales is short of workers with the skills needed to run modern collieries.
Managers face having to bring in mining experts from outside Wales and are initially relying on former miners - some of whom are now in their 50s and 60s - who are fit enough and willing to go underground again.
Kenfig-based Horizon Mining, which is reopening a drift mine in the Vale of Neath, says the Mines Rescue Service - the specialist emergency service for collieries - also needs better funding.
“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?” said a spokesman for Horizon Mining.
“Currently nearly all of that expertise comes from South Wales but as we move forward and start recruiting, then I don’t think we can say with total confidence that all of those mining skills will be available in South Wales.”
A key skills issue which needed addressing was safety management, which had changed greatly since the 1980s.
The company is now rehabilitating the former Pentreclwydau mine, which will be known as Unity mine. The first coal is expected to emerge within weeks. Also to be reopened are a train-loading terminal and a blender, to mix different types of coal for power generation or steel making.
When the Unity complex is fully operational, it should provide jobs for more than 100 people, some of whom will be specialist contractors.
Horizon Mining plans to open four other mines in the region. 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.
He said he was prevented from divulging details because the company hopes to float this year on the London Stock Exchange. That move could raise millions of pounds for investment.
As well as reopening mines, Horizon Mining would like to create small-scale power stations, with modern equipment to minimise emissions, as close to the pithead as space and planning regulations will permit.
“Power technology has moved on. We don’t have to have big Aberthaw-style power stations, so local generation is a viable proposition.
“Transporting coal isn’t cheap, and people don’t like having coal lorries going past their back gardens.”
He said the price of Welsh coal had more than doubled since the Pentreclwydau mine closed in the late 1990s.
“Thank God for the central committee of the Chinese Communist Party,” he added.
“Their drive for industrialisation has had an effect on world energy prices.”
Methane gas is found in coal beds but was discarded in the age of cheap energy. Now it could be used to generate electricity.
“Look at the way gas on the North Sea oil rigs was flared off,” said the spokesman.
“Would we have done that if we knew then what we know now about the consequences of that for global warming, as well as energy issues?”
Rhodri Clark, Western Mail
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