When I was in the rail industry, we looked at building a new railwayline to the mine to help transport the coal....it was rejected as the likelyhood of the mine opening was seen as tiny about 5 years ago....skip forward and (quoted from the Guardian) "two UK steel-makers have ruled out using coal from the Cumbrian mine, and steel-makers across Europe are increasingly turning to low-carbon steel-making techniques, such as electric arc furnaces with energy from windfarms and other renewable sources. ......The coal is also expected to be high in sulphur and therefore liable to be rejected even by steel-makers still using coal...... About 83% of the coal produced from the mine would be for export"
Yep - seems about right! So were opening a mine to produce coal we cant use for a process that doesn't need to use it where renewable alternatives can be employed instead and we would then need to be exporting that coal to god knows where for whatever purpose to make it viable. No, really, what is really going on here. were producing it to burn it in our remaining coal power stations really aren't we. That would at least sound a credible explanation. Is this just a test case I wonder for opening more? Who is profiting from this? I heard it mentioned by Tory bloke on question time last night (who geographically challenged and seemed to thing he was in Cumbria) .... as to the number of jobs it would create .... crumbs from the table...if only someone could tell us the truth but they cant. lies are so ingrained! So this is levelling up is it. send the northern riff raff down the pit and remind em to thank us for it!
We aren't opening it - an equity investment company based in the Caymen islands is. But we will almost certainly be paying for it. Paying for but not owning is the future, just as @rustbucket predicted.
Starting to make sense... so its Reece Mogg at the helm then. The coal will be hewn from the seams by child labour and utilised for the new steam locomotives for ye olde' HSII! and of course the steel for the locomotives.... masterful.. so many issues resolved in one fail swoop. Forward to the past. 1970 was only playing at it, what with anti union legislation were back to 1870... workhouses will be next (will need a facelift and a new name)
I can see it now: Rees Mogg: "Purple, who is this child that brings you cocoa in a billy tin to the coal face every morning? Me: " that's young Purple sir, he's 13" Rees Mogg; " well bring him along when he's 14 and he can work along side you, until you drop dead." Me: "Thank you sir, very kind. Can I get off my knees now?"
We import several hundred thousand tons of coal a year from Australia to make coke to make steel. And thats just to Port Talbot. So buying locally at least saves the energy cost of shipping . Tata wanted to dig an adit straight under the M4 so the coal was dug up effectively on site fron the Welsh coalfields.. but couldnt afford it and nobody would support it..
But its not 'we' is it Mike, its Tata Steel, this is not a new British owned coal mine supplying British Steel. We aren't saving anything, but Tata Steel might.
You need a new electric car because the government wants you to. Its made out of steel. Steel producers are subsidised or have tariff applied to distort the market internationally to favour local producers. You want cheap stuff. So buy it from local low tariff low cost producers ..
I suppose Tata wanted it paid by someone else... the mine owners would have made money compared to the shipping costs..
I think it crosses UK borders to be used by Tata Steel. To make Jaguar Landrover (Tata) cars and Nissan cars here in the UK. The coal Tata want is right next door, the Cumbria mine is pretty useless..
They are all foreign owned as well. Perhaps I'm being too simplistic, but when I think of 'we' I think of raw materials to service the industries we owned publicly, like iron ore for British Steel
Tata and the other obscure foreign steel owners are relentlessly demanding funding and subsidies, using the threat of closure and mothballing as a bargaining tool. I think subsidies to offset the energy cost of arc furnaces was a recent one.
Are there any people willing or able to fill the job of being a miner? If we can’t find people grown up enough to look after old folks in the healthcare sector anymore Then it’s unlikely that they will find anyone to go underground anymore either nowadays
