Mine jobs go after serious rock fall

Longannet is the last deep mine in Scotland

Union representatives were due to meet with management at the Longannet Deep Mine on Thursday after colliery bosses announced 170 redundancies.

Management said that a recent serious rock fall and major geological fault on the mine's D4 face had necessitated its closure after operating losses spiralled to about £2m per month.

In a statement released on Wednesday night, board chairman, Professor Ross Harper, said there was "no alternative" to the redundancies.

The announcement came despite a recent £41m injection into the mine by the Department of Trade and Industry.

About 170 miners will lose their jobs

Professor Harper said that 170 redundancies out of the mine's workforce of 518 would need to be made to keep it operational.

He said: "We deeply regret any redundancies, but can see no alternative. Having commenced coal production from the new D2 face, we have, for some weeks now, also been hitting problems in our other major coal face, known as D4.

"We had hoped to battle through, but the geological faulting is so serious that we have been unable to deliver our production targets.

"We now face both potential safety problems and the prospect of losing vital plant and machinery. We feel we have no option but to close the face and salvage the equipment.

Survival steps

"This means we will lose production of up to 250,000 tonnes of coal."

He said a drastic reduction in costs had to be undertaken to keep the mine operational and that the redundancies would help safeguard the pit's long-term future.

Prof Harper added: "We believe we can stabilise both production and costs at a lower level. If we take the right steps now, we will be best placed to survive for the future."

The 170 job losses will take effect from this weekend.

Management at the mine said that the 27 apprentices recruited during September will remain in employment and they hoped to recover the coal reserves on the D4 face following further mining operations in future years.