UPDATED: Announcement on future of Kellingley Colliery now expected within 48 hours

File picture - September 2011
Kellingley Colliery, Beal, North Yorkshire, one of UK Coal's two working deep mines. The firm has appealed for urgent financial help to keep the pits open. — File picture - September 2011 Kellingley Colliery, Beal, North Yorkshire, one of UK Coal's two working deep mines. The firm has appealed for urgent financial help to keep the pits open.

UK Coal, which runs the pit, asked the government for a £10m state loan to fund a ‘managed closure’ of the site, and another one at Thoresby in Nottinghamshire, over the next 18 months.

The government were expected to make an announcement today but Micheal Fallon, energy minister, said he now hopes to be able to address the Commons within 48 hours.

He said: “The future of UK Coal is primarily a commercial matter for the company. The government is considering whether it can contribute to the private sector led proposals which aim to deliver a managed closure of the Thoresby and Kellingley deep mines.”

Members of the National Union of Mineworkers are also meeting with UK Coal to discuss the future of the pit, at the firm’s headquarters in Doncaster today.