Workers at Silverdale Colliery in Staffordshire have been told the pit will close because coal supplies have run out.

More than 330 miners at the Newcastle-under-Lyme colliery are now likely to lose their jobs when the pit closes within the next eight months.

The mine owners, Midlands Mining, said they have been looking at ways to sustain the mine over the past few years but have failed to find any viable options. They say most of their high quality coal seams have been wiped out due to severe geological faults.

Jim Sorbie, Managing Director of Midlands Mining, said it has been a devastating blow to the company.

He said: "We started off a year and a half ago and last June we ran into difficulties geologically in the high quality seams.

"When we took over the development into the high quality seams was going well but as we developed further to the east, faulting appeared that virtually wiped out the high quality reserves.

"It's a devastating blow to the company and to the miners who work in the mine."

Silverdale Colliery, North Staffordshire's last deep mine, was originally owned and then closed down by British Coal. It was reopened in the early 1990s by coal investments finally being taken over in an management buy out by Midlands Mining.

Annesley Bentick, also owned by Midlands Mining in Nottinghamshire, is unaffected by this decision. But the company said labour requirements at Annesley will be reviewed in an attempt to offer jobs to some of the Silverdale workforce.
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