Press Release – 24th February2005

NEW AGREEMENT LEADS TO REPRIEVE FOR WELBECK COLLIERY

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NEW working practices designed to improve efficiency, increase development performance and eliminate costly production gaps have improved short-term prospects for North Nottinghamshire’s Welbeck Colliery.

Two weeks after owners UK COAL announced the phased closure of the mine due to an uneconomic mining plan, an overwhelming majority of the colliery’s 520-strong workforce has since agreed to work new shift patterns, which will increase machine utilisation time by almost 40%.

Says UK COAL Chief Executive Gerry Spindler: “The workforce and the unions have broken the mould which defined costs and condemned pits to closure in the past. The future of the mine is very much in the hands of the people who work there. Whilst plans to phase out mining at Welbeck over the next 12 months have been suspended, the colliery will be the subject of regular review meetings to ensure key performance targets, which will determine the life of ongoing operations, are achieved.”

Under the new working arrangements, to be introduced with immediate effect, machine utilisation time will increase from around 100 hours to 140 hours a week. Forecast production gaps of up to three months - costing around £1m a week - will be eliminated, enabling the colliery to produce around 1.5 million tonnes of coal a year. Men will work longer but fewer shifts while payment systems have been simplified, removing the potential for protracted and damaging bonus negotiations.

Adds Mr. Spindler: “This improved way forward for Welbeck has emerged from the consultation process we embarked upon over three months ago. It has required the best ideas and an unequivocal commitment from the workforce, and I am privileged to have worked with them. If the performance matches expectations, there is no reason why Welbeck should not continue to produce coal for several more years.

As a result of the new working arrangements, the review of the carrying value of the assets associated with Welbeck and a charge of around £13m on the 2004 accounting period, as announced previously, is now not considered necessary.

Background Notes:

Welbeck, which has been producing coal for almost 90 years, lost £20m last year after geological problems, which resulted in the loss of planned production capacity, reducing its annual output to 0.8 million tonnes.

A comprehensive review of revised mining plans conducted over three months and involving the entire workforce at Welbeck, initially failed to identify measures to allow the remaining six million tonnes of reserves to be extracted viably. As a consequence, UK COAL announced on February 10 that mining would cease when around 1.6 million tonnes of coal on the current and subsequent face now being developed, has been extracted.

The new working arrangements, to emerge from those discussions between management, mining unions and men at Welbeck are designed to eliminate production gaps - periods during which no coal would be produced resulting in high irrecoverable costs.

Welbeck has been awarded a total of £7.8m in two tranches by the Dti under the Coal

Investment Aid scheme towards projects costing £27.5m to access reserves in the Deep Soft seam and infrastructure improvements. UK COAL has so far qualified for

£3.5m of the award and will be submitting revised mining plans to secure additional support, which is paid retrospectively, for the development of the remaining six million tonnes of reserves.

The two shafts at Welbeck, each over 650 metres deep, were sunk between 1912 and

1915. The Top Hard seam was worked between 1915 and 1992 and the Parkgate seam from 1992 onwards. The Deep Soft seam, where current workings are concentrated, was first accessed in 1985 and abandoned 10 years later. In recent years, the colliery has typically produced around 1.5 to 1.7 million tonnes of coal a year, the bulk of which has been sold for electricity generation.

PROBE AT PIT AS MINER IS KILLED 06 November 2007

An investigation has been launched after a coal miner died in an underground accident.

Paul Milner, 44, of Sycamore Street, Church Warsop, died in hospital after an underground shaft collapsed at Welbeck Colliery, Meden Vale.

Mr Milner was trapped when the roof fell in as he was working at the UK Coal-operated pit on Saturday.

An emergency team from the Mansfield Mines Rescue Station raced to the scene and the miner was taken to the Queen's Medical Centre but he later died.

The accident is believed to have happened as Mr Milner and three other men removed a hydraulic support shaft from an exhausted coal seam.

A spokesman for UK Coal said his death was the first at Welbeck for many years.

Mr Milner had worked at the pit for around two years and had previously been at nearby Shirebrook, Pleasley, Clipstone and Harworth pits.

The spokesman said: "Mr Milner was an experienced and much-respected mine worker who had worked in the industry for 27 years.

"Our sincere sympathy goes out to his family and friends and gratitude to mining, medical and rescue services who rendered assistance working tirelessly in difficult conditions in their efforts to save Mr Milner."

An on-site investigation into the tragedy has been launched, with the Health and Safety Executive working with pit bosses and union leaders to establish a cause.

Miners were stood down for the day yesterday while the investigation was launched.

The spokesman for UK Coal said: "Thankfully this is a relatively rare occurrence in mining today, but one which saps your morale. But knowing these people the miners will be doing their utmost from now on to make sure he didn't die in vain."

The colliery faces an uncertain future despite the price of coal soaring. A new coal face is being prepared on a previously abandoned site, but the colliery has not been given Government aid for the five months until it is ready.