Tower miners' Senedd celebration

Miners hold the Welsh dragon at the end of their last shift

Miners at the now-closed Tower Colliery are to be honoured during a reception later at the Welsh assembly in Cardiff.

The pit at Hirwaun in the Cynon Valley closed with a celebratory march in January, 13 years after workers used their redundancy money to buy it.

The reception at the Senedd is to celebrate Tower's job creation, the coal industry and the history of Wales.

Its former chief executive Tyrone O'Sullivan said he was "proud of what is happening for the guys and girls".

Mr O' Sullivan, who spent his life at the pit, was instrumental in making the Tower story the success it became.

After British Coal closed the pit in 1994, he led workers in a buyout to reopen it, a defiant gesture in the face of the programme of colliery shutdowns across the UK.

It's just a tremendous compliment to the workforce Tyrone O'Sullivan, former Tower chief executive

About 240 miners each invested £8,000 from their redundancy packages to raise £2m to purchase the mine. Following the buyout, Tower produced 600,000 tonnes of coal a year with a turnover of £300m.

The mine finally closed in January after exhausting its reserves and the workforce marched out of the pit for the last time.

Many of them have now gone on to gain other jobs in the mining industry but all Tower's former workers have been invited to Monday's celebration at the Senedd at 1800 BST.

Mr O'Sullivan said the reception was a real appreciation of what Tower had achieved over the last 13 years.

'Icon of resistance'

"It's just a tremendous compliment to the workforce," said Mr O'Sullivan.

"It's also recognition of the enormous contribution we have made to Wales, to employment and to the mining industry."

He said usually it was business people or sports stars who were honoured in this way and not ordinary working people.

At the time the pit closed down Rhodri Morgan said the miners had been "inspirational" while Ieuan Wyn Jones described Tower as "an icon of Welsh resistance".

A skeleton workforce is still at the Tower site which is now the subject of another redevelopment plan.

Discussions are still under way, but Mr O'Sullivan said an opencast mine may open there to recontour the mountain for the £100m scheme.

They could go on to create another 500 or 600 jobs at the site, said Mr O'Sullivan.

"That would be a lifetime legacy to Wales and the valley, " he said.